Four picked for Common wealth Games
Malawi Olympic Committee (Moc) has picked four sports codes for the Commonwealth Games scheduled for Gold Coast City in Australia.
Moc vice president, Flora Mwandira, said the codes are netball, table tennis, swimming and athletics.
Mwandira said the country’s national netball team will be at the Games because of their sixth-place world ranking while the other three will benefit from open allocation slots.
“We believe the four sports codes are strong enough to give us the competitive edge. They have done enough over the years to convince us that they can deliver. We will continue to work with them so that they are fully prepared for the tournament,” she said.
Mwandira further said three sports codes of judo, boxing and cycling, which represented the country at the 2014 Glasgow Games, will not make the trip to Australia because their performance has not improved.
She said the three have been left out to give the to improve and will be considered for future events.
On the country’s state of preparations, Mwandira said Moc is working on organising two local camp training sessions in the run-up to the Games.
“We are just tying the loose ends and we will be coming up with the specific dates soon. We are in touch with the concerned sports associations on how best we can prepare for the Games. We are ready to help them with their preparations,” Mwandira said.
Athletics Association of Malawi General Secretary, Frank Chitembeya, said his association has submitted names of competitors from which the final list will be drawn.
“We are only waiting for the training programme. But most of our athletes will be active in both local and international competitions between now and March and this will help them in their preparations,” Chitembeya said.
Netball Association of Malawi has also made its intentions clear on doing well at the Games by announcing the return of veteran Queens Head Coach, Griffin Saenda, for the tournament.
The international multi-sport event for members of the Commonwealth will officially commence on April 4.
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