Adma given green light to host Africa Drasughts
The Malawi National Council of Sports (MNCS) has granted Association of Draughts in Malawi (Adma) permission to host the African Draughts-64 Championship between July 9 and 14.
Malawi won the hosting rights of the continental championship after Madalitso Thom Baba emerged the best African player during World Draughts Championship in Russia in October last year.
Recently, African Draughts Federation (ADF) said the country risks losing the rights to Ethiopia if Adma, through the MNCS, fails to raise half of the required K7 million budget.
But in a letter addressed to Adma and copied to ADF, MNCS executive secretary George Jana stated: “We are pleased to advise that upon consultation within ourselves and with the government through the Ministry of Labour, Youth, Sports and Manpower Development, permission is hereby granted that you host the Africa Draughts Championship as planned.
“Further to this permission, government undertakes to assist you in any possible manner for a successful hosting of the competition.”
Adma general secretary Suzgo Nkhoma expressed gratitude to MNCS for the approval to host the 10-nation event.
“We are glad and greatly empowered. We will do our best to make Malawi shine in minority sports circles as we have been doing,” he said.
Malawi lost the hosting rights of the inaugural championship to Zambia in 2016 due to failure to meet a minimum budget of K4 million. Then, the country was selected to host the event after Enock Makoka-Banda finished as Africa’s best performer at the 2015 World Draughts Championship in Russia. n
