Tennis in talent identification
Malawi Academy of Sport (Mas), through its tennis section, will this weekend hold a two-day championship to select players to represent the country during the Region 5 Games.
The tournament will start today at Blantyre Youth Centre, with outstanding players being earmarked for national assignments.
Mas Tennis Head Coach Regina Dembo said the tournament will also be open to under-18 and 16 players from other camps.
“We have decided to include under 18 and 16 players from other centres that are not part of the academy. The idea is to have the best in these categories so that they should represent the country when we host Region 5 Games.
“For the sake of the nation we have opened up the championship instead of concentrating on academy players in these categories,” she said.
Dembo, who is assisted by Kelvin Kachepa, said this tournament was unique as it was the first since December.
“In Blantyre we last played a tennis tournament in December. We want to assess the performance of the kids. We have to grade the players according to their development stages before they graduate to performance players,” she said.
Mas was established by Malawi National Council of Sports to identify and nurture talent from the grassroots level.
The academy, which has volunteer coaches in athletics, basketball, football, netball, lawn and table tennis, operates in Blantyre, Lilongwe and Mzuzu.
