Athletes camp for Region 5 Youth Games

At least 305 athletes are in camp in Lilongwe in preparation for the African Union Sports Council (Ausc) Region 5 Under-20 Youth Games scheduled for December 2-11 in lilongwe.

This is the second camping for Team Malawi after the first selective camping which took place in June in Blantyre. 

A statement from Malawi National Council of Sports says the athletes went into camp on September 18 and are expected to wind up on October 2.

Reads the statement in part: “The initial camping led to the selection of 293 athletes out of 400. This time around, the number has increased as a girls Under-17 football team has also been included.

“E-sport has also been identified as one of the sporting codes to be added to the games and Malawi will feature a team.”

Athletes in 10 sporting codes, namely football, volleyball, netball, basketball, athletics, paralympics, lawn tennis, judo, taekwondo and boxing are in camp while swimming and e-sport will  camp later on.

Sports Council spokesperson Edgar Ntulumbwa said the athletes are camping at Lilongwe Girls Secondary School.

“After the two weeks camping, the athletes will be in residential camping where they will be monitored by their coaches, Malawi School Sports Association and Sports Council. The final camping will take place in November in the countdown to the games,” he said.

Basketball coach Robert Munthali said he is impressed with the progress of the preparations.

“We still have to work on some tactical areas, but I believe we are on track,”he said.

However, one of the athletes complained that the K1 000 daily allowance they are getting each is not enough to motivate them ahead of the games.

During last year’s games in Lesotho, Team Malawi won 29 medals, including two gold, 10 Silver and 17 bronze.