Sports Council revels in 2023 success

 Sports says it is delighted that apart from netball, most of the associations did well in international competitions last year.

In an interview yesterday, Sports Council spokesperson Edgar Ntulumbwa said it was pleasing that most of the disciplines that did well are those deemed as minority sports.

He said: “It is gratifying that most minority sports disciplines took part in international tournaments and did exceptionally well.

“As Sports Council, we are very happy because it shows that we are making progress in the development of sports.

“In fact, the only sport that struggled at international level was netball as the Malawi Queens finished outside the top six at the World Cup for the first time in two decades.

“They also finished last at the 2023 Fast5 World Netball Series and did not win a match. We also had challenges with athletics because of the wrangle with Athletics Malawi which has since been addressed.”

Among other success stories, Ntulumbwa cited the Scorchers’ Cosafa Women’s Championship triumph in South Africa and the Malawi National Cricket Team’s fourth place finish at the Africa T-20 Cricket Cup.

He also said the swimming team winning two gold medals at the CANA Zone IV Swimming Championship in Angola and the Paralympics team winning silver through Mphatso Saukile at Para-Athletics World Youth Games in Italy were a big feat .

“Then we had the Under-17 and Under-19 girls handball teams who won silver and bronze respectively at the International Handball Federation Zone VI Challenge in South Africa,” said Ntulumbwa.

The Flames qualification for the semi-finals of the Cosafa Cup for the first time in two decades, the draughts team winning nine medals at the Africa Deaughts 64 Championship in Zambia and the special Olympic team scooping nine medals at the 2023 Special Olympics World Games in Germany were also listed as part of the success stories.

Ntulumbwa also said the introduction of the Mzuzu City Half Marathon and the growth of the Malawi Youth Games with over one million students from 12 000 schools taking part were also a plus.

But while admitting the Malawi Queens struggles, Netball Association of Malawi general secretary Isaac Chimwala said there were also positives, citing the reclaiming of the sixth position on world rankings.

He said: “This happened despite the team losing a number of games. The struggles helped us improve on our weak areas as the focus now is to inject new talent, focusing on the height and young players.