Malawi competed at the

2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 (Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from 1 ...

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

, Australia. The country's participation marked its sixth appearance at the

Summer Olympics The Summer Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'été), also known as the Games of the Olympiad, and often referred to as the Summer Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The inau ...

since its debut at the 1972 Games. The delegation included two track and field athletes:

Francis Munthali Francis Fanello Munthali (born 25 December 1972) is a Malawian former middle-distance runner. Competing in the men's 800 metres at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Francis finished eighth in heat eight and failed to qualify for the next ro ...

in the men's 1500 metres and

Catherine Chikwakwa Catherine Chikwakwa (born 24 July 1985 in Blantyre) is a Malawian long-distance runner. She has represented her country at both the 2000 Sydney Olympics and the 2004 Athens Olympics, as well as several Commonwealth Games. She was the 5000 metres s ...

in the women's 5000 metres. Both athletes participated at the Games through wild card places since they did not meet the required standards to qualify. Neither athletes progressed past their heats.

Background

Malawi participated in six Summer Olympic games between its début at the

1972 Summer Olympics The 1972 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XX Olympiad () and commonly known as Munich 1972 (german: München 1972), was an international multi-sport event held in Munich, West Germany, from 26 August to 11 September 1972. ...

in Munich, West Germany and the

, Australia. The only occasions in that period which they did not attend was at the

1976 Summer Olympics Events January * January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 11 – The 1976 Phi ...

in Montreal and the

1980 Summer Olympics The 1980 Summer Olympics (russian: Летние Олимпийские игры 1980, Letniye Olimpiyskiye igry 1980), officially known as the Games of the XXII Olympiad (russian: Игры XXII Олимпиады, Igry XXII Olimpiady) and commo ...

in the Soviet Union, the former because of a boycott relating to the New Zealand national rugby union team touring South Africa, and the latter because the country joined the United States-led

boycott A boycott is an act of nonviolent, voluntary abstention from a product, person, organization, or country as an expression of protest. It is usually for moral, social, political, or environmental reasons. The purpose of a boycott is to inflict som ...

over the 1979 invasion of Afghanistan during the Soviet–Afghan War. The highest number of athletes sent by Malawi to a summer games is 16 to the 1972 Games and the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, South Korea. The Malawian team at the 2000 Games consisted of two athletes, one male and one female. Prior to the games, Malawian long-distance runner

participated in the Sydney 2000 Olympic Scholarship programme. A total of 472 participants in the programme went on to compete in the Games. This was the second time that Munthali had competed at the Olympics, having previously competed in the 800 metres at the

1992 Summer Olympics The 1992 Summer Olympics ( es, Juegos Olímpicos de Verano de 1992, ca, Jocs Olímpics d'estiu de 1992), officially known as the Games of the XXV Olympiad ( es, Juegos de la XXV Olimpiada, ca, Jocs de la XXV Olimpíada) and commonly known as ...

in Barcelona, Spain.

was 15 years old when she was selected for Malawi at the 2000 Olympics. Neither athlete recorded times fast enough to automatically qualify; the only previous time any Malawian athlete had done so was at the 1972 Games.

Athletics

The country's sole female athlete at the 2000 Games was Catherine Chikwakwa, who competed in the

5000 metres The 5000 metres or 5000-metre run is a common long-distance running event in track and field, approximately equivalent to or . It is one of the track events in the Olympic Games and the World Championships in Athletics, run over laps of a stan ...

. She competed on 22 September in the third heat of the first round, and completed the run in 16 minutes and 39.82 seconds, finishing in 15th place out of the 17 athletes. She was faster than Swaziland's

Priscilla Mamba Priscilla Innocentia Lungile Mamba (born 4 January 1972) is a Swaziland athlete. She competed for Swaziland at the 2000 Summer Olympics in the Women's 5000 metres event. She finished 16th of 17 competitors in her heat and did not advance to the f ...

(17 minutes and 30.04 seconds) and Baatarkhüügiin Battsetseg of Mongolia (18 minutes and 22.98 seconds). The top four athletes in each heat automatically qualified for the final, while the next two finished fast enough to receive spots based on their times. Chikwakwa's therefore failed to qualify past the first round. Malawi was represented by one male athlete at the 2000 Games in athletics – Francis Munthali in the

1500 metres The 1500 metres or 1,500-metre run (typically pronounced 'fifteen-hundred metres') is the foremost middle distance track event in athletics. The distance has been contested at the Summer Olympics since 1896 and the World Championships in Athletic ...

. He competed in the first heat of the first round on 25 September. Munthali finished in last place of the 13 athletes with a time of three minutes and 46.34 seconds, directly behind Croatia's

Branko Zorko Branko Zorko (born 1 July 1967) is a Croatian retired middle distance runner who specialized in the 1500 metres. Zorko competed in the 1500 metres in five Olympic Games, from 1988 to 2004, making it through to the semi-finals in 1992 and 1996. He ...

(three minutes and 46.16 seconds). Only the top six athletes in the heat qualified for the semi-finals, as well as seventh placed Julius Achon of Uganda who qualified as one of the fastest runners up from all the heats. As such, Munthali's Olympic competition ended after that single run. ;Track and road events

References

{{NOCin2000SummerOlympics Nations at the 2000 Summer Olympics

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

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