Jnr golf team fails to impress
Malawi failed to improve their standing on the leader-board at the just-ended All Africa Junior Golf Challenge in Harare, Zimbabwe.
The four-member team finished 11th out of 12 teams as they were only better than Botswana.
According to Golf Union of Malawi vice-president Hudson Kantwanje, who was the leader of delegation, despite good performance on the final day on Friday, it was not significant following the team’s poor performance on Thursday.
“There was a slight improvement on Friday as Aadil Parker posted 77 [15 shots better than the previous day] while Chris Mzokomera shot 78 [10 better than the previous day], Ganizani Lusho shot 85 whereas Rashid Salima posted 83 [seven shots better than the previous day score],” he said.
South Africa retained the title with hosts Zimbabwe as runners-up. This means South Africa and Zimbabwe have qualified for the World Junior Championship to be held in Japan later this year.
The competition was played on stroke-play format with four players per team and best three scores per day to be counted.
South Africa’s girls’ team also qualified after emerging winners in a four-nation contest after beating Zimbabwe, Zambia and Kenya.
“Our boys lost it on Tuesday and Thursday when they posted 257 and 259, respectively,” said Kantwanje.
“Any result above 250 is bad and difficult to reverse. Malawi has potential as evidenced by the results of last day. This came about after we [and coach Dingaan Chirwa] had serious talks with the boys on complacency.”
He said they also noted a number of shortfalls that they need to work on urgently so the team, which was expected back home yesterday, can do better.
The final results were as follows: South Africa 841, Zimbabwe 878, Reunion Islands 917, Morocco 926, Uganda 932, Zambia 966, Tunisia 977, Kenya 979, Namibia 990, Mauritius 997, Malawi 999, Bostwana 1203.
