Fifteen sports disciplines will miss out on 2024 Paris Olympics qualifiers following government’s failure to allocate resources in good time, Nation on Sunday has established.

The sports disciplines to miss out are golf, volleyball, badminton, tennis, handball, rowing, taekwondo, weightlifting, canoeing, basketball, table tennis, judo, gymnastics, field hockey and cycling.

With the Paris 2024 Olympics qualifiers starting in a month, Minister of Youth and Sports Uchizi Mkandawire said in an interview a task force is yet to be put in place and the budget has no allocation for the qualifiers.

“There is no committee and we have not dwelt on that in the national budget. You have to ask the Malawi Olympic Committee (MOC). I think they are in a good position to know about preparations. It is their domain,” he said.

Has potential to qualify: Simwaka

MOC treasurer general and leader of delegation to the Games Henry Sakala in an interview said, they have settled for six sports disciplines.

He said: “Due to our limited resources, as MOC, our scope has narrowed down to just six sports disciplines, namely field and track, swimming, boxing, archery, judo and womens football. Some athletes from judo, archery and  track and field have won scholarships from International Olympic Committee including, training and participation in the qualifiers.

 The women’s football team has won the team grant. We are focusing on these because we believe with our limited resources they have potential to qualify on merit.”

Sakala said they have sponsored athletes to Botswana and Kenya to take part in the World Athletics Championship qualifiers which acts as a stepping stone to qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics.

He said local archers will next month also travel to Turkey for qualifiers.

“The 2024 Paris Olympics unlike the Commonwealth Games are purely on merit. You have to reach there on merit not solidarity that’s due to limited resources we are just focusing on those disciplines that did well in international competitions recently and support them,” said Sakala.

Sakala though told The Nation that they would always appreciate government support to include more sports disciplines.

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