The International Association of Athletics Federations’ (Iaaf) Vice President, Kalkaba Maboum, has given Bingu National Stadium (BNS) a seal of approval for hosting international athletics’ competitions.
Speaking after inspecting the stadium’s track and field facilities on Saturday, Maboum hinted on the possibility of Malawi hosting the under-20 African Athletics Championship.
“The stadium looks beautiful. It is new and the athletics track is also new. I believe that Malawi could host one African athletics event in that stadium by 2019,” he said after inspecting the facility alongside Athletics Association of Malawi (AAM) and Malawi Olympic Committee officials.
Maboum, who is also President of the Confederation of African Athletics, was in the country to attend the Commonwealth Games Federation Annual General Meeting, which ended on Saturday in Lilongwe.
AAM president, Godfrey Phiri, said hosting the continental tournament would help local athletes to raise their profile.
“We all know what happened to Botswana’s athletes when their country hosted the under-20 African Athletics Championship. Their performance improved and several of them are competing at world level. We also expect the same to happen to us,” Phiri said.
Opened last year, BNS was approved by Fifa to host matches. The facility even has athletics equipment that Malawians cannot use because of lack of capacity.
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