Sports Council to review Podium Performance Programme impact
Malawi National Council of Sports will review the impact of Podium Performance Programme (PPP) following Team Malawi’s participation in Region Five Games held in Angola last December.
The scientific programme was aimed at improving Team Malawi’s medal tally at the games, but the side got nine legitimate medals.
Prior to the bi-annual developmental games, the Sports Council entered into a partnership with the College of Medicine Sports Complex to run the programme through its High Performance Centre.
Through the programme, Team Malawi’s athletes from sport codes such as athletics, boxing and judo underwent training for 18 months before the games.
Team Malawi won 16 medals, including seven given as a consolation.
It meant that Team Malawi got nine recognisable medals.
Sports Council’s Sports Development Officer, Ruth Mzengo, said they would evaluate the impact of the programme before deciding whether to continue with the project.
“Basically, I think the project is good and there is need for continuation. However, I would like to state that we did not get the results which we were hoping for. We had one of our best preparations but we got nine legitimate medals. We also had an additional seven medals that were more or less a consolation,” she said.
Mzengo said major stakeholders in the programme would meet before the end of the first quarter of the year.
Team Malawi’s best outing was in 2012 when they scooped 12 medals during similar games in Lusaka, Zambia.
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