Tabitha makes it 4 out of 4

Tabitha Chawinga on Sunday kept alive her hopes for a second successive golden boot award in the Chinese Women’s Football League when she scored her fourth goal in four games.

The Malawian also had two assists as she helped Jiangsu Suning thrash Changchun Dazhong Zhuoyue 6-1 to have a stranglehold on the summit of the eight-team log-table with 12 points from four wins.

China Women’s Football wrote on Twitter yesterday: “Jiangsu continued their perfect campaign in the season with a 6-1 win. A Tang Jiali’s hat-trick plus Tabitha Chawinga, Elizabeth Addo and Yang Li confirmed the points for the hosts while Ren Guixin scored for Changchun.”

So far, Chawinga has scored in each of the team’s four league games.

In an interview yesterday, the 23-year-old said she is happy to be on the right track to achieve her target of 25 goals this season.

“It feels great to be scoring in each game and I am confident that I will win the golden boot again in the Chinese league this season. But most of all, I thank God for this talent,” she said.

Last season, the free-scoring striker won the golden boot in her debut season in the Chinese top-flight league with 17 goals, seven ahead of second-placed top-scorer and former African player of the year Nigerian striker Asisat Oshoala.

Malawi national women’s football team coach Abel Mkandawire yesterday described Chawinga as “a scoring-machine” whose services will be missed at the Cosafa Women’s Championship in South Africa where they kick-start their campaign against Madagascar tomorrow.

“We are confident that the striking force we have in the likes of Sabina Thom, Mary Chavinda and Asimenye Simwaka will deliver at Cosafa,” he said.

When Tabitha last played at Cosafa in 2017, she scored eight goals to become the competition’s second best scorer.

The eventual Golden Boot Award winner Zimbabwean Rutendo Makore of Zimbabwe had 10 goals.