New twist to AAM medal saga
First the explanation was that funding delayed. Then, that medals ran out of stock in shops. Now, these changing tunes of the Athletics Association of Malawi (AAM) have fallen flat, exposing shocking ‘untruths’.
This is the case as the event’s sponsor and shop owners insist that money and medals were available for the February 22 2015 Confederation of Africa Athletics (CAA) Southern Africa Cross-Country at Njamba Freedom Park.
Medals carry more value than money to athletes.
The event witnessed by Sports Minister Grace Chiumia, ended in embarrassment as there were no medals for participants from Malawi, Botswana, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia. Local winners have since been rewarded with cash prizes by government.
During prize giving the AAM general secretary Frank Chitembeya apologised to the gathering while promising to dispatch the medals, claiming funding for buying the medals had delayed. However, at the time of going to press the medals had not yet been sent.
AAM president Godfrey Phiri, who slammed critics as being ill-informed, claimed that shops ran out of medals and that there was nothing unusual with the bushy running track. Some foreign athletes complained of poor diet and inadequate toilets.
“I remained quiet because Malawians know how to talk without finding out the root of the matter. All that time, there were no medals in town. You can ask Bricon [Sports], IntoSports and Metro,” Phiri claimed on Saturday.
“Before the game, we communicated to all team managers of the international delegates and they accepted since they know such things happen. I have gone to several competitions where we were told medals would be sent later, but to Malawians this is an issue.”
IntoSports manager Shabir Ismaer on Saturday said AAM never contacted his shop for medals while Bricon official Tariq Tarmahomed blasted an AAM official for telling a local radio station that the Blantyre shop had no medals.
“I have already complained through Mr. [George] Jana [Sports Council executive secretary] that the athletics people should not lie. They came, got a quotation but never came back,” Tarmahomed retorted when contacted separately on Saturday.
Jana, who has promised introduction of check-lists to associations wishing to host such events, further described AAM claims that funding delayed and shops ran out of medals as ‘total untruths’.
“The association was advised to seek quotes for everything they required for the competition and council was directly paying the suppliers at every turn this happened,” Jana explained, adding that they are investing the medals’ saga.
“We know that they sought quotes from Bricon Sports who were ready to supply the medals, but that quote was never brought to council to make payment. It seems the association wanted council to just issue them a blank cheque for them to access real cash to use whichever way they wanted.”
Former athlete and now athletics coach Denis Phiri on Wednesday said the event, which was offered to Malawi after the Seychelles withdrew from hosting, had challenges which AAM ought to accept without pushing the blame to council.
“It is my first time to have an international event without medals, but locally it happens. A medal is more valuable to an athlete than money. You cherish it forever. The challenge was that there was no working committee, hence it might have been difficult to remember things such as medals,” Phiri explained.
During the event, local athletes Mercy Malembo, Abina Tchinga and Kephas Kasten won gold medals for junior women (six kilometres), men (eight kilometres) and senior men (12 kilometres) respectively.
Senior women category winner was Zimbabwean Olivia Chitate, followed by compatriot Constance Nazanga with Kanani Eunice of Namibia getting junior women category silver. Malawian Harry Sichali trailed compatriot Tchinga.
