Malawi athletes yet to qualify for Olympics

With seven months to go, Malawian athletes are facing a race against time to qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics.

This is despite having six athletes on full International Olympic scholarship since 2021.

In an earlier interview, the Malawi Olympic team  Chef de Mission Henry Sakala said there is still a chance for  Malawian athletes to qualify.

He said: “We are focusing on four disciplines  and these are athletics, archery, swimming and judo where we believe there is potential.

“There are more qualifiers coming up next year before the actual games and that can afford us an opportunity to sail through.”

So far, government  has not committed any resources towards qualification games which led to the national women’s football team pulling out from the qualifiers due to lack of funds.

In an interview, Minister of Youth and Sports Uchizi Mkandawire admitted  that there was no allocation in the budget to cater for the qualifiers.

“But in the next budget,  we will allocate some funds for the Olympics. Government is committed to seeing Malawi take part in global competitions, but sometimes we are limited in resources,” he said

Meanwhile, the Malawi Athletics (MA) is looking for over K75 million to take part in Olympic qualification games in Ghana and Serbia next March.

“We need government support on this because we don’t have funds. We will soon submit a budget  to Malawi National Council of Sports to help us take part in the games,”  said MA general secretary Nicholas Kanyenda.

Malawi is banking its on athletes such as Mike Abel (archery), Asimenye Simwaka, Sunganani  Namakonje and Stern Lifa (athletics) and Jessica Makwenda and Fillipe Gomez (swimming).

On the other hand, athletes from  neighbouring and Sadc countries such as Zambia, Mozambique, Tanzania, South Africa, e-Swatini and Botswana have made the grade.

South Africa has so far 111 athletes while Zambia has one,  boxer Patrick Chinyemba.

Zimbabwe has a rowing team and long distance runner Isaac Mpofu.

In case of Mozambique, boxer Alcinda Panguana punched her ticket in the women’s welterweight division.

Botswana has four athletes, namely Letsile Tebogo in 200-metres (m), Bayapo Ndori  in 400m,  Leoungo Scotch in 400m and Tshepiso Masalela in 800m.

Boxer Thabiso Dlamini has qualified from e-Swatini.

Northern neighbour Tanzania has four athletes namely Gabriel Geay, Alphonce Simbu,  Jacline Sakilu and Magdalena Shauri.