Punching bags

Tertiary Students Sports Association of Malawi (Tessam) has attributed Team Malawi’s struggles at the 2024 Confederation of University and College Sports Associations (Cucsa) Games in Pretoria, South Africa to poor preparations.

Tessam vice-general secretary Edwin Msiska made the admission in an interview yesterday after Team Malawi lost all their nine matches in football, netball, basketball and volleyball to be the only team yet to register a win at the event so far.

He said: “Shoddy preparations have affected our performance. We did not have thorough preparations due to inadequate funding.

“Of course, government through the Ministry of Youth and\ Sports and some universities provided us with funding, but it was not enough.”

He added that fatigue was another factor as they did not have time to rest after arrival.

“We arrived in South Africa on Sunday, barely a few hours before our games. With fatigue, it was not easy to do well in our opening fixtures,” Msiska said.

“All the same, we have now refreshed and we will fight for better results. All is not lost as we still have a few more games to play and we need to win something at this event.”

In netball, Malawi lost 93-24 to hosts South Africa, 48-41 to Zambia and 45-18 to Zimbabwe. In football, they suffered a 1-0 defeat at the hands of Botswana before going down 2-0 to Zambia.

They also lost in volleyball by 3-0 margins to South Africa and Zimbabwe. They were beaten in basketball 67-56 by Zambia and also lost 80-67 in overtime to Botswana after a 62-all draw.

Team Malawi’s performance has dropped compared to the 2022 edition when they won in volleyball and ladies basketball and finished as football runners-ups.

Meanwhile, Malawi National Council of Sports spokesperson Edgar Ntulumbwa said they are aware of the team’s struggles and will discuss with Tessam after the Games to map the way forward.