Rains disrupt PIS national netball competition: NAM impressed with performance

The much awaited three-day Presidential Initiative on Sports (PIS) national netball finals which started on a high note with some fire works on Thursday (January 10 2019) was disrupted with heavy rains in the afternoon  at Blantyre Youth Centre (BYC).

The rains poured heavily when only five games were played out of 12 matches slated for day one of the competition which is expected to be concluded on Saturday (January 12).

Many netball followers came into their large numbers and filled BYC netball court just to watch and cheer their beloved teams respectively.

PIS defending champions Blue Eagles sisters played the opening match against their fellow  Central region giants MAFCO Soldiers in a match that ended to 30-24 baskets in favour of Eagles while in the second game Blantyre based heavyweights Kukoma Diamonds taught Lameck Queens netball lessons after thrashing the Mzuzu based side 49-9 baskets.

The match was followed by a cracking battle  which involved Thunder Queens and Civonets who were paired in Group C which was also considered as a group of death and after the final quarter Civonets won the match 32-20 whereas Tigresses beat Mimosa Queens 41-11  before Blue Eagles came  again to play their final game which they won and registered their second win to book their quarter final place after beating  Boma Sisters 28-23 baskets.

But as Kukoma Diamonds second match against Prison Sisters was set to kick off it was disturbed with the heavy rains  which started at around 12:31PM.

The rains took almost 2 hours to stop and left the court yard in unplayable condition as it was waterlogged.

However, the remaining seven games were resumed after waiting  for close to 3 hours after netball officials and players mopped the court yard but only four matches were played whereas the remaining three are expected to be played on Friday morning.

According to the fixture a total of 12 matches were supposed to be played on Thursday where eight quarter finalists were also expected to be produced from the four groups.

Currently only three teams Blue Eagles Sisters, Kukoma Diamonds and Tigresses have qualified into the quarter finals while Lameck Queens, Boma Stars have been shown the exit door in the 2019 PIS competition after losing all their their games.

In an interview with Nyasa Times Netball Association of Malawi (NAM) General Secretary Carol Bapu said she is very impressed with the performance displayed by teams on the first day of the competition.

Bapu said PIS competition is one of the best tournament in the country as it helps to produce quality players who are always drafted into Malawi Queen National Teams.

Commenting on the rains, Bapu said they are planning to take the competition from BYC to College of Medicine Sports Complex indoor court should the rains continue coming.

“It was very disappointing to see the games been stopped due to rains. Initially we organised to use College of Medicine indoor court but we failed due to some other circumstances  but possibilities are there that if the rains continues we’ll try our level best to move the competition to COM,” said Bapu.

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