Sports in Malawi have been shaped by its history as a colony in the old British Empire,

Football

Football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

is the most popular sport in Malawi. It is played by boys at all levels from makeshift village playfields to prep school league competition. Malawi fields a national football team. The country's biggest success was a third place finish at the

1987 All-Africa Games The 4th All-Africa Games were played from August 1, 1987, to August 12, 1987, in Nairobi, Kenya. 42 countries participated in fourteen sports. From the beginning the intent had been to hold the African Games every four years. Economic difficulti ...

. This was the last year national football teams were allowed to play in the All-Africa Games. Since 1991, only under-23 teams are allowed to play.

Netball

Netball has long been a popular sport for schoolgirls. Malawi is a full member of the

International Federation of Netball Associations World Netball, previously known as the International Netball Federation and the International Federation of Netball Associations, is the worldwide governing body for Netball. The INF was created in 1960 and is responsible for world rankings, m ...

, and is currently ranked sixth internationally. The Malawi national netball team has put Malawi on the African map, qualifying for and coming first in regional tournaments such as the COSANA tournament. Malawi have competed at two Netball World Championships, and one Commonwealth Games. At the

2007 Netball World Championships The 2007 World Netball Championships was the 12th edition of the INF Netball World Cup, a quadrennial premier event in international netball co-ordinated by the International Federation of Netball Associations (IFNA). Sixteen nations contested the ...

, Malawi finished fifth beating strong teams such as Wales, Cooks Islands, and South Africa. Malawi's biggest sport achievement so far comes from Netball. The team earned a bronze medal at the

2016 Fast5 Netball World Series The 2016 Fast5 Netball World Series is the seventh staging of the annual Fast5 Netball World Series, and the fourth to be played under the new Fast5 rules, which replaced the older fastnet rules introduced in 2009. The tournament was held in Austra ...

, the most important

Fast5 Fast5 (originally called Fastnet) is a variation of netball featuring shortened games and goals worth multiple points. The new format was announced by the International Federation of Netball Associations (IFNA) (now the International Netball Feder ...

netball tournament in the world. On continental level, Malawi earned the title of the 2012 Netball Africa Championship.

Athletics

Athletics and

cross-country running Cross country running is a sport in which teams and individuals run a race on open-air courses over natural terrain such as dirt or grass. The course, typically long, may include surfaces of grass and earth, pass through woodlands and open coun ...

have also been developing since Malawian independence. A pioneer in the systematic training of talented young runners is Dr. Harold Salmon, a Peace Corps Volunteer who served in Malawi from 1966-1968. Smartex Tambala represented Malawi at the Olympic Games in 1992 in Barcelona, Spain. He competed in the

Marathon The marathon is a long-distance foot race with a distance of , usually run as a road race, but the distance can be covered on trail routes. The marathon can be completed by running or with a run/walk strategy. There are also wheelchair div ...

road race. From the year 2000, there has been an improvement in the quality of athletes, the most notable of whom is

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 ...

, silver medallist at the

2004 World Junior Championships in Athletics The 2004 World Junior Championships in Athletics were held in Grosseto, Italy on 12–18 July. Results Men Women Medal table Participation According to an unofficial count through an unofficial result list, 1261 athletes from 168 count ...

.IAAF
/ref> There are other runners from the University of Malawi and the Army who have shown significant progress.

Basketball

In post-colonial Malawi, basketball has also taken hold principally through the efforts of Peace Corps volunteers from the USA in the mid 1960s. The

African Bible College African Bible Colleges is an entity comprising multiple Bible college in Africa. The three campuses offer university-level education from a Christian perspective, with the aim of training men and women for Christian leadership and service. Hi ...

has further contributed to the growth of basketball, by bringing professionals from USA to hold coaching clinics and also sending some of the best players to the USA. Basketball is mostly made possible by individuals who provide university scholarships. Yet, sports scholarships in general are very rare in Malawi.Foundation's Voices: "Basketball has no barriers and can bring everyone together"
FIBA, 18 May 2021. Accessed 22 July 2021. One of the recipients for a basketball school scholarship was Sharo Charlottie Kaiche, who as of 2021 is ''Youth Development Officer'' for the ''Likuni Gators'', a spiritual based basketball and character development club with activities in four schools. She works with all of the 3 zonal regions of Malawi for future success especially for U16, U18 and

3x3 basketball 3x3 basketball (pronounced ''three-ex-three'') is a variation of basketball played three-a-side, with one backboard and in a half-court setup. According to an ESSEC Business School study commissioned by the International Olympic Committee, 3x3 ...

. As of 2021, Sharo has also been the Vice Captain of the

Lilongwe Arkangles Lilongwe (, , ) is the capital and most populated city of the African country of Malawi. It has a population of 989,318 as of the 2018 Census, up from a population of 674,448 in 2008. In 2020 that figure was 1,122,000. The city is located in th ...

, a contender for the top women’s basketball team in Malawi. She further coaches the ''Next Gen Academy'' and ''Catalyst Basketball Movement''.

Other sports

Just like basketball, volleyball has taken hold principally through Peace Corps Volunteers from the USA in the mid 1960s.

References