Chawinga sisters to battle at Malawi Sport Awards
Women’s football stars Tabitha and Temwa Chawinga will battle for the Sports Woman of the Year Award at the Malawi Sport Awards scheduled for Bingu International Convention Centre in Lilongwe this Friday evening.
This was revealed yesterday in Blantyre when the Malawi National Council of Sports board member Helene Mpinganjira-Tasosa, who chairs the development committee, announced the final top-three nominees for each of the 16 categories.
The Chawinga sisters will fight for the accolade alongside draughts star Susan Kachepa, who won five gold, a silver and a bronze at the recent Africa Draughts Championships in Zambia.
In an interview yesterday, Tabitha, who plays for French women’s football giants Paris Saint Germaine (PSG), said she is excited with the prospect of competing with her sister for the award.
“If she wins, it means my family has won and the same applies to me,” she said.
Temwa, who has just signed for US National Women’s Soccer League side Kansas City Current, could not be reached for comment yesterday.
In the 2022/23 season, Tabitha won the Italian Serie A Femminile’s golden boot and was named in International Federation of Football History and Statistics (IFFHS) as well as CAF Africa Women’s Team of the Year.
She was also nominated for the 2023 CAF Women Player of the Year Award and was named in best Africa XI by FIFPRO Africa.
On the other hand, Temwa was named 2023 women’s world top scorer with 63 goals by IFFHS. She also came third on the ranking of Women’s World Best Top Division Goal Scorer after bagging 30 goals in Chinese Women’s Super League while playing for Wuhan and was nominated for the 2023 CAF Africa Women’s Player of the Year Award.
She also led the Scorchers to their first-ever Cosafa Women’s Championship triumph in South Africa last year, where she won the Player of the Tournament and Golden Boot awards.
Mpinganjira-Tasosa, who was accompanied by Sports Council accountant Shephord Boma and internal auditor Alice Mwakanandi said: “After this shortlist, the actual winners of each category will be revealed on the day of the awards. So far, we are happy with how the nominees have been selected.”
Sportsman of the Year nominees are taekwondo athlete Yamikani Guba, draughts player Enock Banda and visually-impaired athlete Mphatso Saukile.
Paralympic Saukile is also up against special olympians Patrick Sichamba and Emmanuel Banda for the Sportsman with Disability Award.
Battle for the Sportswoman with Disability Award will be among special Olympic athletes Melissa Phapa and Hanna Winesi and paralympics lawn tennis player Estere Nagoli.
Junior Female Sportsperson of the Year nominees are footballer Victoria Mkwala and taekwondo athletes Tiwonge Phiri and Mphatso Dube while the junior male sportsperson section has swimmer Luke Chimwemwe and taekwondo athletes Brave Kamanga and Gift Ronnex Lambulira.
Non-citizen of the year has Zimbabwean FCB Nyasa Bullets head coach Kalisto Pasuwa, national cricket team coach Arjun Menon and chess player Priyasha Santos.
Coach of the Year will be selected between Scorchers coach Lovemore Fazili and Para-athlete coach Agness Chikwakwa whereas best umpire/referee/judge will be chosen among female football referee Eneless Gumbo, boxing umpire Gift Pasanja and hockey umpire Daniel Matavata.
The Scorchers, draughts and special Olympics are earmarked for the National Team of the Year Award while Football Association of Malawi, Hockey Association of Malawi and Association of Draughts in Malawi will vie for the Association of the Year Award.
Karonga, Salima and Chitipa will fight for the Sports District of the Year Award while Mibawa TV, Times Group and Timveni Radio will tussle for the Media House of the Year accolade.
