MOC for individual sports

The Malawi Olympic Committee has said Malawi’s failure to send individual sports athletes to international events is a huge setback as it is individuals that have great potential of winning medals.

MOC treasurer general Jappie Mhango said it is sad that individual sports struggle to get funding for international events.

“To an extent, team sports in the country have not done well while individual sporting disciplines such as boxing, weightlifting, taekwondo, athletics and swimming have shown great potential to make it big, but struggle for funding.

“It is time we changed our perception and invest more on individual sports,” said Mhango.

He added that MOC’s mandate is not to prepare or fund associations, but to train athletes for international competitions such as the qualifiers.

In 2010, weightlifters earned a medal at their debut African Championship while taekwondo won three gold in their debut international tournament at the Southern Africa Championship. In the same year, amateur boxers won gold at the Zone VI. Since then, the associations have been struggling to get funding for international events.