Nyasa Big Bullets striker Babatunde Adepoju beamed a smile as he walked to the podium at Sunbird Mount Soche in Blantyre on Wednesday evening to collect two individual accolades during the Airtel Top 8 Season Four Awards ceremony.

He collected both the Best Player of the Tournament and the Top Goalscorer trophies, the only available accolades for outstanding players at a ceremony where outstanding journalists were also honoured.

Outstanding: Babatunde shows off his awards

The Nigerian was voted the tournament’s best player after outsmarting other nominees his team-mate Lanjesi Nkhoma and Silver Strikers attackers Stain Davie and Zebron Kalima.

To become a topscorer, the 26-year-old lofty forward scored eight goals in three games, four goals in a win against Mafco and the same number of goals in victory against his former club Mighty Wanderers.

“I am happy to have won two awards in this prestigious tournament. There was tough competition from other players and feels good to be a winner,” Adepoju said.

Football Association of Malawi (FAM) president Walter Nyamilandu said Babatunde’s achievement vindicates their wish to consider him for Malawi citizenship and national team selection.

“This striker banged goals at will to win the top-scorers award in the Airtel Top 8 and has proved to be among top-strikers in the country’s elite league. After staying for five years in the country, he qualifies to be a citizen and play for the Flames,” he said.

During the ceremony, journalists were also rewarded for their outstanding coverage of the tournament.

Nation Publications Limited (NPL) dominated the print category after sports editor Garry Chirwa, sports reporter Solomon Manda as well as photo-journalist Bobby Kabango scooped best journalist and runner-up, and best photo-journalist respectively. Kabango had Lazarus Nedi of Times Group as his runner-up.

TV Islam’s Yasin Limu and Romeo Kumali of Rainbow TV did the same in television section while Mwakhele Kaliyande (MIJ FM) and Frank Kandu (MBC) were winner and runner-up in radio category. The best commentator award went to MBC’s Steve Liwewe followed by Innocent Chitimbe of Timveni Radio. Benjamin Maona of Kulinji.Com was the best online journalist followed by Malawi 24’s Andrew Chilapondwa.

One of the media award judges, Jolly Ntaba, head of media studies department at the Malawi University of Business and Applied Sciences, said they looked at various journalism principles such as objectivity and accuracy to determine the winners.

However, he said there is room for improvement for journalists, especially in television and radio, to effectively meet the entry requirements for the awards.

Said Ntaba: “What everyone should know is that football reporting is different from hard news as it has an element of entertainment. Before the next edition, we will probably need to conduct a short course on basic reporting in sports.”

Airtel Malawi plc managing director Charles Kamoto said they were happy with the way the tournament was run despite the effects of Covid-19.

He said: “The tournament was very encouraging; the performance was much better that what we witnessed in previous editions. As sponsors, we are excited that this connected so well to identification of talent that featured in the Flames’ matches at the recent Africa Cup of Nations finals in Cameroon,” he said.

He added that they are committed to bankroll season five of the tournament.

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