Sports Council waives registration of Blantyre 42.195km Race to attract more professional athletes

* Athletes from rural areas struggle to find the registration fee, a factor which was impeding them from joining the event

* As a Sports Council, it is our mission to see mass participation in sporting activities and we thought it wise to waive the fees

By Duncan Mlanjira

Malawi National Council of Sports has waived registration fees for the Blantyre 42.195km race and the 10km category to allow talented but struggling professional athletes the chance to compete in the annual signature sports event of the City of Blantyre.

Announcing the news today at a press briefing Sports Council’s director of planning, marketing & infrastructure development, Limbani Cliff Matola said they took cognizance that athletes from rural areas struggle to find the registration fee, a factor which was impeding them from joining the event.

The registration for the 42.195km marathon race was at K20,000 for and K15,000 was for the 10km category that has now been scrapped off while for the 5km its stands at K5,000 and those participating in aerobics at K2,000.

“As a Sports Council, it is our mission to see mass participation in sporting activities and we thought it wise to waive the fees,” Matola told the media and in his response, Athletics Malawi president, Kondwani Chimwala applauded the Council for their decision that will afford more athletes to participate in the colourful annual event.

Matola also appealed to the corporate world to support the event to make it more successful after Precious Medical International and Kamuzu University of Health Sciences (KUHeS) sponsored K1.5 million each towards the event.

Precious Medical International’s Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Gertrude Mateyo said they were happy to be associated with an event  that promotes the health and wellness of the nation as it one of aspects which are closest to their heart.

While KUHeS general manager responsible for the university’s sports complex, George Chitunga said they felt it necessary to support towards the race being partners in sports development.

“We are a high-performance center and when we heard about the marathon, we thought it wise to come in and partner with the sports council in organizing the marathon,” Chitunga is quoted as saying on Sports Council media platform.

Matola urged other institutions and the private sector to emulate PMI and KUHeS gestures, while also indicating that the support from other stakeholders will subsidise athletes registration that has been waived off.

Matola has since indicated that the process of refunding those who already paid is underway, news which has excited Zomba Athletics Academy, which had already paid a total of K130,000 for eight athletes.

There are three for the 42.195km Race (Eneless Makumba, Timothy Wallace and James), two for 10km (Kesten Banyira and Janet Chidothi) and three for 5km (Samuel Mpokosa, Hilda Maida and Blessings Mwalure.

They are expected to be refunded K90,000 from the 42.195km and 10km races, which the Academy’s patron, Benedicto Makumba said was a huge boost to them as they will register more athletes and also cater for their travel and accommodation expenses in Blantyre.

In the quest to win the women’s category of the Blantyre 42.195km Race, Zomba Athletics Academy intend to have its athlete, James Imedi to race as pacesetter for Eneless — who finished finished 5th in last year’s edition in a time of 3:45;39hrs.

She was 45 minutes and 32 seconds behind the champion Nalicy Chirwa from Mzuzu, who clocked 3:00:07, whose second place was won by Mount Mulanje Club’s athletes Teleza Master in 3:09;26; Zinenani Stefano in 3rd in 3:24;12 and Mphatso Khembo on 4th in 3:34:19.

Last year’s men’s champion was Grevasio Mpani from Civo Athletics Club in Lilongwe in 2:19;01; runner-up Harry Ndacha Njerenje of Moyale Barracks of Mzuzu and Mphatso Nadolo from Zomba in 3rd in 2:26;58.

The Blantyre 42.19km Race will be celebrated under the theme; ‘Pace Up’, whose proceeds from registration will be donated to a maternity ward at any government hospital in Blantyre which will be part of Mother’s Day celebrations.

Prize money for the main 42.195km Race, both male and female are K1.5m for the champions, K1 million for runner-up and K750,000 for third place.

The 10km race both male and female are K750,000 for champions, K500,000 for second place and K250,000 for third place  with K375,000 for champions in 5km, K250,000 for runners-up and K125,000 for third place.