The Maravi Post

LILONGWE--After over a month intensive training at Gloucestershire University in the UK in preparation for the ongoing 2012 London Olympic Games, a depleted team of Malawian athletes at the Games will go into real action this Friday when swimmer Joyce Tafatatha competes in heat 4 at 10am UK time, while runner Ambwene Simukonda takes on other athletes in 400m at 12 noon. On August 12 Malawi’s marathon runner will sweat it out in the men’s marathon at 11am UK time.

Chances of Malawi clinching any medal at the Olympiad are virtually remote, considering that no Malawian athlete met the Olympic qualifying times and they are there participating on Olympic Solidarity. Nevertheless, the most important thing is that Malawi is there and, who knows, the athletes may surprise everyone by bringing home a medal, albeit that being a tall order! After all, government had pledged a cool K1 million to any athlete who brings home a medal.

Malawi’s only hope of a medal was swimmer Charlton Nyirenda who, unfortunately, was withdrawn for failing to meet preconditions for swimmers participating in the Games on Olympic Solidarity. Nyirenda is the only Malawian athlete to win a heat at the 2008 Games and his withdrawal after a month of training at Gloucestershire University training camp was quite unfortunate as it reduced further the number of Malawian athletes taking part in the world’s biggest sporting event.

But perhaps now eyes will be on marathon runner Tebulo and his pace-setter John Kayange, who finished on respectable second and third positions respectively at the Gloucestershire half marathon held on July 8 as part of preparations for the Olympic Games.Tebulo is said to have clocked 1:05:40 hours, while Kayange made it in 1:05:55 hours ahead of a huge group of runners from other countries.

According to Malawi team manager Jappie Mhango, the results showed that Tebulo was improving, but he said it would be cheating oneself to predict that he would perform likewise in the real heat which is a full marathon.The Games began on July 27 in London.
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©2012 The Maravi Post. Reproduction authorised, with usual acknowledgment.

LILONGWE--They may not necessarily be the strongest teams in the TNM Super League anymore, but whenever they clash the turf suffers.
And this is why Civo Stadium in the capital Lilongwe was packed to capacity on Sunday because the two fallen giants—Big Bullets and Mighty Wanderers—still enjoy massive support.

Each time they face off, the outcome is always difficult to predict.

It was the same on this overcast Sunday afternoon, but when the final whistle was blown, it was Mighty who prevailed over their age-old archrivals with a deserved 2-1 victory.

Big Bullets were the first to hit the net through Henry Kabichi, but the Nomads replied through Nafe Msasa before man-of-the-match Joseph
Kamwendo scored the winner for his side in the second half.
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©2011 The Maravi Post. Reproduction authorised, with usual acknowledgment

LILONGWE--The latest Fifa rakings have seen Malawi dropping further down by seven places from position 87 to 94 despite participation at the Council for East and Central Africa Football Associations (Cecafa) Tusker Senior Challenge Cup lately.

It was every Malawian’s hope that the Flames might scale up the ladder on this year’s final world football rankings, but the opposite is true.
But Flames coach Kinnah Phiri told Star FM Radio in an interview Thursday that the drop in rankings does not mean that Malawi is that bad only that the Flames have not played any friendly international games falling on Fifa-sanctioned dates.

He said there is still a chance to reclaim a better position in 2012 with Malawi’s participation in qualifiers for the next edition of the Africa Cup of Nations and the World Cup.

Kinnah said the December Fifa rankings, which were released Wednesday on Fifa website, should instead of being disappointment serve as a motivation to win the forthcoming World Cup and Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers next year.

Malawi has also dropped to 21th position in Africa where Cote d’Ivoire are still on number one and 16th in world.
South Africa also slipped by a step to 51 in the world but still lead Southern Africa. The Flames are fourth after Zambia and Angola.

Botswana, too, have gone down to 95th position on the world chart and 22nd in Africa.

"World and European champions Spain remain unchallenged at the top of the table, followed by the Netherlands, Germany and Uruguay, who are all still competing in an exciting head-to-head battle for second place. As the top team at year-end, Spain are the Team of the Year for the fourth year in a row," according to Fifa.
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©2011 The Maravi Post. Reproduction authorised, with usual acknowledgment

BLANTYRE—Walter Nyamilandu has won by a landslide to clinch the Football Association of Malawi (FAM) presidency for a consecutive third term with 35 votes.

His main challenger Henry Chibowa bagged only 9 votes in a highly contentious election held in the resort district of Salima in central Malawi.

Conceding defeat, Chibowa cried foul, saying the playing field wasn’t level. Nyamilandu said he was humbled to win and promised to fulfill what he laid out in his manifesto.

The election was declared “free and fair” by Ashford Mamelodi of the world governing body of soccer, FIFA.

Rights activist Moses Mkandawire, of the Church and Society of Livingstonia, was elected vice president for FAM. He beat Elijah Kachikuwo 38 to 7 votes.

The following are committee members who will be in office for four years: Jack Jabba, Alexander Waya, David Dube, Othaniel Hara, Paul Mzungu and James Mwenda.

The run-up to the election in this soccer-mad country was fraught with controversy. Earlier this month, police cleared FAM of allegations that is had opened a fraudulent account without the approval of the board of directors.

“We have come up with no tangible evidence implicating FAM or [its president] Walter Nyamilandu,” police spokesperson Dave Chingwalu said.
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©2011 The Maravi Post. Reproduction authorised, with usual acknowledgment