Diamonds retain Rainbow title
Kukoma Diamonds retained the 2019 Blantyre and Districts Netball League championship for the fourth successive time after narrowly beating rivals First Choice Tigresses 34-32 at Blantyre Youth Centre on Saturday.
Tigresses led the first two quarters 9-8 and 18-16 only to stumble in the third quarter after letting the lead slip away from as Diamonds led 27-26.
Diamonds finished the season with a perfect record having won all 20 games to amass 40 points four ahead of second-placed Tigresses.
Diamonds’ Assistant Coach, Noel Mussa, said the season was tough.
“We upped our game because our opponents were also tough and good,” he said.
For emerging champions Diamonds got K1.2 million with Tigresses pocketing K700,000 while third-placed Tropical Queens received K350,000.
Teams from fourth position to 10 received consolation prizes.
In individual awards, Tigresses’ new catch, Tendai Masamba was voted best shooter with Hawa Chikoja of Tropical Queens winning the best centre award.
Diamonds skipper, Caroline Mtukule-Ngwira was named defender with Linda Kaponda picking the best umpire accolade.
Meanwhile, Minister of Sports, Francis Phiso, who was the guest of honour at the finals, disclosed that officials from the government will in course of this week inspect land which has been earmarked for a modern in-door netball court.
“Officials will inspect the land which we allocated to Nam. We want to build one court here [in Blantyre] and another one in Lilongwe most likely at Kamuzu Institute for Sports,” he said.
Rainbow Paints Marketing Executive, Jangale Chiosa- Mponda, pledged continued support while Nam President, Khungekile Matiya underscored the significance of the league.
