Malawi athletics body faces punishment over World Youth Championship
Athletics Association of Malawi faces stiff penalty from International Athletics Associations Federation for failing to send an athlete to World Junior Championship which was held in Kenya.
The world athletics governing body has been provoked after the Malawi athletics body committed to participate in the competition by entering an athlete Mercy Malembo who was provided with an air ticket.
AAM general secretary Frank Chitembeya confirmed the development that they would be penalised for wasting resources.
He said the association failed to send the athlete after failing to raise money to buy air ticket for a coach to accompany her.
“I can confirm that the IAAF will punish us because we failed to send an athlete after they had send an air ticket for the athlete,” Chitembeya said.
“We earmarked Mercy Malembo to go but since Malawi Olympic Committee has selected her for Youth Olympic Games we thought it wise to contact them to consider sponsoring ticket for coach. Unfortunately it didn’t work out.”
However an official at Malawi Olympic Committee confided in Nyasa Times that the association did not consult them when entering the race.
“Association should plan. This is what we have been advising them including AAM to avoid such a scenario,” said the official.
The news which is trending on social media has drawn anger from most athletics sympathisers.
This has also added more weight to the association’s lack of leadership vision and incompetency vindicating the fears that the manner in which the current executive committee bulldozed its back into power would be detrimental to the development of athletics
