Malawi faces penalty for trimming C’wealth squad

The Malawi Olympic Committee (MOC) has said the trimming of the squad for the Commonwealth Games will have far-reaching repercussions.

MOC president Oscar Kanjala yesterday said apart from a financial penalty, the country’s allocation for athletes at future tournaments will be trimmed.

Kanjala said from the K83 million (US$201 946) budget they submitted to government, K60 million (US$145 985) was approved, leading to the trimming of athletes.

Malawi was expected to send not less than 59 athletes to the global showcase and on Saturday MOC announced that it would send 49.

The figure further dropped yesterday when Kanjala announced that only 32 athletes would make the trip.

“Due to insufficient funding, we were forced to drop even more athletes yesterday and the notable affected codes were bowling and athletics.

“It was a painful process and it has psychologically affected the dropped athletes. Worse still, we will have to pay penalties, but we do not know to what extent and also our allocation for athletes will be trimmed,” he said.

Kanjala said some officials have also been dropped from the trip.

In the last edition of the Games, Malawi came closer to winning medals in bowling and athletics whereas the Queens, finished fifth.

The nine codes that are expected to take part in the global sports showpiece are netball, boxing, swimming, athletics, cycling, judo, table tennis, weightlifting and bowling.

The Malawi team, which flew out of the country yesterday, will attend a week-long camp at the University of Gloucestershire in England before proceeding to Glasgow, Scotland on July 13 for the Games which will start on July 14.