Chandamale meets her match: Malawi army inter unit sports festival

Celebrated long distance athlete Lucia Chandamale’s dominance at the Malawi Defence Force (MDF) Inter Unit Sports Festival finally came to an end on Tuesday when the seasoned athlete was outpaced by upcoming Ruth Mailosi from Moyale Barracks (3MR) in the 1,500-metre race for women.

Representing Admin Lilongwe, Chandamale, who has added more weight looked on course to win the race as she led the pack of female athletes from various MDF units before she was outpaced by the Moyale Barracks athlete with just seconds remaining.

“I feel happy to have won the race at the expense of experienced athletes Lucia. My secret was simple- I reserved my energy for the last part of the race and all along I was trailing closer to her (Lucia) before overtaking her within the final seconds,” said Mailos after the race.

Mafco FC striker Richard Mbulu demonstrated how he eludes defenders in the TNM Super League by finishing top in the men’s 100-metre race.

In football, 1MR (Cobbe Barracks) got off to a winning start after thrashing Moyale Barracks 3-1.

Moyale had on their starting line-up free scoring striker Deus Nkutu, who defied his doctor’s advice to stay on the side lines for a year by fearing for the Kaning’ina soldiers.

As per competition rules, Super League players are barred from taking part in the festival but the Moyale striker was given a leeway to feature for Moyale basing on his condition.

In the most popular military sport- tug-of-war Lilongwe Admin defeated Zomba Admin with 2MR (Kamuzu Barracks) reigning supreme over Support Battalion.

The games were opened by MDF’s Chief of Training Brigadier General Paul Phiri, who urged the participating soldiers to maintain discipline and aim at achieving excellence.

“These games have been there since the MDF was established. The aim is to ascertain soldiers’ physical fitness and identify athletes to represent the force at national and international level,” said Phiri, who represented MDF Commander General Ignasio Maulana.

Phiri hailed Old Mutual and Toyota Malawi for contributing towards the K18 million budget for this year’s games.

The games, which are expected to close tomorrow have drawn over 500 soldiers from all the 13 MDF Units.

The soldiers have been competing in the disciplines of athletics, basketball, boxing, football, netball, volleyball, hockey, taekwondo, tug-of-war, weightlifting and Judo.

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