Team Malawi yesterday failed to fly to the African Union Sports Council (AUSC) Region 5 Youth Games and will instead leave today.
Malawi National Council of Sports spokesperson Edgar Mtulumbwa in an interview said the delay was due to miscommunication between council and the company where they have chartered the a plane to fly the athletes and officials.
“The plane was supposed to arrive today [Tuesday], but due to miscommunication it didn’t. Instead it will arrive tomorrow [Wednesday] and the Team Malawi departs in the morning,” he said.
However, the delay has not dampened the spirits of the athletes who are beaming with confidence of further improve their medal tally.
MKandawire and athletes representatives Pempho Datchi (2ndR) and
Chris Millie during send off. | Courtesy of Sports Council
In the last edition that the country hosted in 2022, Team Malawi won 44 medals, an improvement from 29 won in the previous edition in Lesotho.
Malawi National Council of Sports chief executive officer Henry Kamata yesterday said although they have not set targets for the team, they expect to see improved performance.
“Our general expectation is that we should fight to win more medals than the last edition,” he said.
“However, we do not want to put our athletes under pressure to achieve such success as we are building talents for the future, with the main focus on having a formidable team for the 2030 Commonwealth Games and 2032 Olympics.”
A total of 165 athletes and 37 officials, including coaches and team managers, will represent Malawi in the Games that will take place in Windhoek between this Friday and July 13.
Team Malawi will compete in 14 sporting disciplines, including football (boys and girls), basketball (boys and girls), volleyball (boys and girls), netball, boxing, karate, judo, lawn tennis, table tennis, swimming, athletics, para-athletics, Special Olympics and E-sports.
In the last edition, Malawi finished sixth with eight gold, 10 silver and 26 bronze.
All the gold medals were won in athletics.
Six silver medals were secured in Taekwondo, three in athletics and one in judo.
The 26 bronze medals were shared among athletics (nine), taekwondo (five, basketball (three), boxing four), football (two), judo (two) and volleyball (one).
Malawi Under-20 women’s football team coach Linda Kasenda said they are hoping to make an impression as they begin their journey against Namibia on Friday.
