Malawian athlete in London for World championship with no coach
Malawian athlete Happy Mcherenje is set to participate in world athletics championship on Saturday in London, England in marathon but he left without a coach.
Mcherenjere’s coach Always Zingile said the development was not good for the athlete.
“It’s a requirement that an athlete should be accompanied by an international event which has not been the case in most of such competitions,” Zingile said.
But the Athletics Association of Malawi (AAM) has come under fire for sending two envoys President Godfrey Phiri and General Secretary Frank Chitembeya just to attend meetings.
One of AAM officials, who spoke on conditions of anonymity, condemned the association for sending two officials instead of prioritising a place for a coach.
“What AAM should have done was at least to send either the President or General Secretary so that the other ticket should have been allocated to the coach for the athlete,” he said.
But AAM Vice President Emmanuel Mlonya defended the move saying both Phiri and Chitembeya would attend different meetings.
Malawi National Council of Sports executive secretary George Jana said the council has always advised associations against sending athletes for international competitions in the absence of a coach or technical officials.
“The fact that some associations get an air tickets for athletes only should not be an excuse for them to allow athletes participate in international competition without a coach,” Jana said.
The development comes barely two weeks after AAM touched the raw nerve of International Athletics Association Federation after Mercy Malembo failed to travel to World Youth Championship held in Uganda.
The administration of President Phiri and the ever controversial General Secretary Chitembeya has found itself in the news for wrong reasons and it remains to be seen whether their ambitious dreams of producing a qualified athlete for a major competition will be fulfilled.
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This is not the first time our so called sports administrators have done this. Can some put sense in their head! Kick them out please. We can not progress with selfish people on the helm