Chawinga sisters bask in hat-tricks’ delight

The Chawinga sisters, Tabitha and Temwa on Sunday claimed a hat-trick each as their Chinese Women’s Superleague side Wuhan Jiangda thumped Guangdong Meizhou 1-8.

The victory extended Wuhan’s unbeaten run to 14 games.

Wuhan have only dropped two points in this campaign and sit pretty at the summit of the 12-team league with 40 points, five above second-placed Shanghai RCB.

Following the hat-trick, her first this season, Temwa, who leads the Chinese women’s top- scorers’ chart, has taken her tally to 18 goals, seven more than second-placed fellow African Barbara Banda from Zambia, who plays for Shanghai.

On the other hand, Tabitha, who recently returned from her season-long loan stint at Italian Women’s Serie A side  Inter Milan, has scored five goals.

In an interview yesterday, Temwa said they were excited to claim the hat-tricks.

She said: “We have both scored hat-tricks before, but this is the first time that it has happened in one match.

“So, we are really excited about it.”

The 24-year-old also played down the golden boot race, saying: “It’s not something that is really on my mind now. The focus is to keep doing well for the team.”

On Sunday’s match, Temwa said: “It was more or less one-sided. At half time, we led 6-0.”

She also won the Chinese National Women’s Cup Golden Boot recently.

Last season, the Scorchers striker also won the accolade in both the national cup and league.

In a separate interview, Tabitha said while the focus has been on her exploits, her sister is also enjoying a rich vein of form.

“Temwa is now the star of the show. She is on top of her game,” said the Scorchers captain.