Junior Queens lose to South Africa
Malawi Under-20 National Netball Team yesterday suffered a 42-27 loss to rivals South Africa in their third fixture of the Region 5 Youth Games in Maseru, Lesotho.
But despite the setback, there is still a glimmer of hope for the Malawi Junior Queens to fight for honours if they beat Zambia in their last round robin match this morning after registering a 40-20 win over the hosts Lesotho in their opening match and Botswana 82-15 in their second assignment.
Five teams, Malawi, South Africa, Lesotho, Zambia and Botswana are competing at the games with top two teams at the end of round robin matches facing off in the final.
Yesterday, the Junior Queens trailed South Africa 9-6 in the first quarter before going down 20-13 at half-time and 32-18 in the third-segment.
In a game monitored on Lesotho Netball Association live television, Malawi appeared to be tactically good but were deceived by the lofty heights of their opponents.
Despite the loss, team coach Carol Mtukule-Ngwira hailed her charges for putting up a spirited fight.
“We will try to win our remaing game against Zambia so that we qualify for the final,” she said.
On her part, Netball Association of Malawi (NAM) vice-general secretary Diana Nkhulambe, who is with the team in Maseru, said: “There is special talent in our girls. The only thing that South Africa is taking advantage of is the height of our players.”
Junior Queens overall performance at the games will give a hint on how the senior national team will look like in the near future.
Some of the junior Queens players might make it into the Queens squad ahead of the 2022 Commonwealth Games and the 2023 Netball World Cup.
