LIST| MNCS announces nominees for Malawi sports awards

The Malawi National Council of Sports (MNCS) has announced nominees in each category for Sports Awards.

The national sports award is scheduled to take place later this month on February 28 in Mangochi in what the council describes as a prestigious event.

This year’s awards will feature 13 categories which include Junior Sportsperson of the Year, National Team of the Year, Sportswoman of the Year with a Disability, and Sportsperson of the Year.

According to the Chairperson of the organizing committee from the MNCS, Limbani Matola, voting starts today up to February 25, three days before the main event.

The selection process for contestants involved nomination by sports writers’ associations followed by the shortlisting stage to ensure scrutiny of contenders.

Thereafter, the listed names went through an adjudication stage where the top three in each category were chosen.

And now finally, the names will be offered to the public for the final vote through a digital portal.

Matola said: “After the nomination stage, there was a shortlisting stage. After the shortlisting stage, there was the adjudication stage. The shortlisting stage was simply to find out if the nominations met the minimum criteria in that specific category.

“The adjudication committee was simply looking at now the best entries in that category, the top three entries. So we announced today the top three categories in each of the 13 categories. Now what remains is for the public to take part through the voting process.”

One of the judges who was involved in the adjudication stage, Gracian Tukula, expressed worry that there were several challenges they encountered over the whole process.

 “We did not have many female nominees. The only female nominee that came up unfortunately came with no backing evidence and therefore was disqualified so by the time of shortlisting we ended up with no female nominee.” Tukula said

He also said: “The second challenge was that for the nominations, of course, it’s not a big challenge but something that we just noticed that most of the journalists were nominating themselves.

There is nothing wrong in feeling that you are the best but I would have preferred people nominating each other to appreciate each other’s excellence.”

Sisters Tabitha and Temwa Chawinga are among the top contenders for the Sportswoman of the Year award.

Meanwhile, the Coach of the Year Award will be a closely contested category, with Christina Mkwanda, coach of the Under 21 National Netball Team, facing stiff competition from Peter Mponda of FCB Nyasa Big Bullets and Greshom Mtambalika.

Here is the full list of the nominees

Junior male Sportsperson of the Year

1. Alipo Namangale – Chess
2. Suhail Zahid Vayani – Cricket
3. Tasunje Mkavea – Swimming

Junior Female Sports person of the year

1. Eneless Fabiano – Football
2. Eva kabwere – Cricket
3. Samatha Mwamondwe – Karate

National team of the year

1. Under-21 netball
2. Under 19 women’s cricket team

Sports Association of the Year

1. Chess
2. Cricket
3. Netball

Best executed sport development program of the year

1. Chess in Schools
2. Junior Golf
3. Mpira Mudzi Mwathu

Sportsman of the Year

1. Rodgers Zako – Darts
2. Samil Mohammad Sohail – Cricket
3. Zacheus Phiri – Body buider

Sportswoman of the Year

1. Temwa Chawinga – Football
2. Tabitha Chawinga – Football

Sportsman of the Year with disability

1. Mphatso Saukile – Para-athlete
2. Moses Misoya – Para-athlete
3. Victor Chikuse – Special Olpmics

Sportswoman of the Year with disability

1. Estere Nagoli – Para atahlete
2. Nancy Verani – Special Olympics
3. Taonere Banda – Para atahlete

Coach of the year

1. Peter Mponda – Football
2. Gershom Masimba Mtambalika – Cricket
3. Christina Mkwanda – Netball

Sports Administrator of the year

1. Joseph Kawelama – Karate
2. Joe Zangazanga – Darts
3. Vitumbiko Gubuduza – Netball

Sports Journalist of the Year (Print)

1. Mphatso Malidadi – Times
2. Peter Fote – Times
3. Solomon Manda – Nation

Sports Journalist of the Year (electronic)

1. Bright Kanyama – Zodiak
2. Raymond Siyaya – Chanco Community radio
3. Yasin Limu – Tv Islam

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