Zomba Athletics Academy seeking sponsorship to meet travel costs to participate at two sports festivals in Blantyre and Mangochi

* Cape Maclear Carnival Fitness Fiesta October 6-8 and Blantyre Under-20 Athletics Championship October 16 whose registration already paid for

* The athletes for the Cape Maclear Carnival are expected to leave for Mangochi on Friday morning

* We are, therefore, appealing to wellwishers to sponsor us for the development of the sport at grassroots, which is our main focus

By Duncan Mlanjira

Zomba Athletics Academy has committed to participate at two sports festivals in Mangochi and Blantyre by paying for registration but are seeking assistance from the corporate world and other individual wellwishers to meet their travel costs to both events.

The races are the Cape Maclear Carnival Fitness Fiesta this weekend (October 6-8) and the Blantyre Under-20 Athletics Championship on October 16 to be held at Lunzu Secondary School.

The Zomba Academy’s matron, Eneless Makumba and her athlete, Rama Banda will compete in Cape Maclear Carnival Fitness Fiesta’s half marathon (21.1km) while Kesten Banyira will compete middle distance (10km). 15/10km and fun run 5km

There will be cash prizes for position 1-3 but all athletes to receive a participatory medal having paid registration fee of K25,000.

The Academy’s founder and manager, Benedicto Makumba, who is supervising his athletes’ participatory by remote control as he is in Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) on peacekeeping mission with the Malawi Defence Force (MDF) with which he is a soldier, says he has used his personal resources and that of the club to pay for the registration.

“The athletes for the Cape Maclear Carnival are expected to leave for Mangochi on Friday morning and we are desperately looking to meet the travel costs,” he said.

“We are, therefore, appealing to wellwishers to sponsor us for the development of the sport at grassroots, which is our main focus.

“Kesten Banyira is an up-and-coming athlete with potential to represent Malawi as he won the annual Chawe 10km Zomba Mountain Reforestation Race on September 9 while another of our athlete finished second.

“I am keen to develop Zomba Academy to be a reliable pool of athletes where sports authorities can tap talent from for national representation — but we lack the financial and equipment resources,” he said.

The organisers of the Blantyre Under-20 Athletics Championship say its objective is to develop athletics at grassroots while upholding value of sportsmanship and the categories to be competed for are 4x100m relay, 4x400m relay, Medley relay, javelin, discus and shot putt.

Zomba Academy will be represented by 10 athletes and 2 officials Eneless Makumba (matron & manager) and James Imedi (team leader).

Four each will participate in the relays (Mwai Chimera, Blessings Mwalure, Maria Minjale and Hilda Maida (in Medley relay); Blessings Mwalure, Mwai Chimera, Hassan Madeya, Andrew Chimera (4x400m relay; Watson Mussa, Owen Nsonkho, Blessings Mwalure and Mwai Chimera (4x100m).

The girls field events will be represented by Maria Minjale (javelin & shot putt); Deborah Makwasa (discus) and Hilda Maida (long jump) — while the boys are Owen Saiti (javelin); Mwai Chimera (discus & shot putt and Watson Mussa (long jump).

In the past year, Zomba Athletics Academy’s 10 athletes represented Malawi in international meetings and one of them includes a successful paralympic athlete Paralympic, Mphatso Saukile — who participated at the African Union Sports Council (AUSC) Region 5 Youth Games in December 2022 in 400m and 800m Regional 5 Games in Lilongwe where he won two gold medal in 800m and 400m.

He also represented the country in Venice, Italy at the Jesolo Grand Prix  from May 12-15 where he was second in 1500m and 5th in 400m in Open-aged competition.

Makumba, who is husband to the Academy matron, Eneless, also encourages his athletes to concentrate on their academic pursuits and through his own resources and contributions from the academy’s development partners, he pays school fees to some deserving but needy learners when for their secondary school needs and on his holiday from DRC last month, he paid for 10 of them.

The Academy has 47 athletes in total and he maintains the team through his salary from the MDF and from his business profits as well as occasional assistance from some of his well-wishing friends.

He maintains that to sustain their academic needs is a great challenge — thus he always appealing to wellwishers since the numbers are rising.

Makumba, who is also the national and southern Africa champion in 800m and 1500m, says those wishing to support his efforts of encouraging the athletes to also pursue their academic dreams, can deposit to Zomba Branch of the FDH Bank — Account name: Zomba Athletics Development Center; Account number: 1210000450527.

He disclosed that both he and Eneless are not signatories of the bank account, saying he just supervises on their needs and allows them to make withdraws while demanding for receipts, which he keeps in custody for auditing.

Zomba Academy came to more public prominence when the matron Eneless volunteered to participate at Standard Bank Be More Race in June and the Malawi National Council of Sports’ Blantyre 42.195km Race in July as a charity to raise funds to reconstruct houses for Mphatso Saukile’s and Owen Saiti families — that collapsed due to Cyclone Freddy.

Following media coverage Standard Bank responded by donating K1 million during the Race’s prize giving and Sports Council reciprocated with a further K1.6 million.

Benedicto supervised the reconstruction of two houses during his holiday from DRC and were completed and handed over before returning to duty.