Paralympics to embrace wheelchair basketball

The display of outstanding skills and overwhelming spectatorship during the inaugural Kachere Rehabilitation Centre Wheelchair Basketball Games in Blantyre on Friday has given the Malawi Paralympics Committee (MPC) food for thought.

Nyau basketball team won the four-team round-robin competition with 54-18 and 24-14 triumphs over Chigwenembe and Lakers respectively.

“This sport has proved to be of great benefit in terms of promoting disabled athletes in the country. This is an expensive sport, but Kachere Rehabilitation has laid the foundation for the sport to grow. We will work together with them to develop the sport,” said MPC national coach George Luhanga.

Kachere Rehabilitation and Training Centre organised the competition through funding from Australian Volunteers International to raise awareness on the importance of physical exercises for disabled people and give them a platform to share experiences and challenges.

In particular, according to physiotherapist Eliza Collier, the sport helps patients with spinal code injuries or deformities to improve in terms of mobility, sitting balance and their reaction to unpredictable situations.

“We have been doing this on a weekly basis here at Kachere to help our patients in terms of physical fitness so that they can push their limits on their capabilities and gain self-confidence. We have now considered putting it on a larger scale to benefit a lot of disabled people,” she said.

However, Collier said the expansion of the sport nationwide will require financial and material support from the corporate world because athletes need special wheelchairs and basketball courts for their game.

During the matches on Friday, Nyau’s Bettie Machira, Lakers’ Thokozani Goodson, and Red Hammers’ Eric Losani emerged as outstanding players for their respective teams.