Poor Malawi athletes: Go 3,000km by road to Uganda continental race
Athletics Association of Malawi has a mountain to climb to realise their far-fetched dream of producing a medallist at a major competition.
Both AAM president Godfrey Phiri and General Secretary Frank Chitembeya waxed lyrical of fulfilling the rhetoric promise they classically failed during their previous four term of office after being re-elected recently.
The association sanctioned a seven-member delegation to travel 3,000km by road to Uganda for Africa Cross Country to be held next weekend.
But due to other logistical problems the team left on Tuesday making the situation even worse.
The athletes have also undergone inadequate preparations to compete against the best athletes on the continent and their coach Moses Kondowe was neither involved in the selection of athletes nor training them. That is not all.
The athletes are without a leader of delegation for such a long distance just because none of the officials was willing to face harsh conditions.
The athletes, who are leaving are Harry Sichali, Caphus Kasten, Chancy Master and Celine Mhango athletes are among the team while Marita Phiri and Grevazio Mpani were dropped at the eleventh hour due to financial reasons.
One of the athletics pundits said the distance is too long for the athletes to go using public transport.
“In terms of saving they will as it could cost less than Kl00,000 return bus fare each,” he said.
“But the long distance could make them stiff and it could be difficult to loosen up ahead of the competition,”he said.
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