Team Malawi has suffered a setback at this year’s Paris Paralympics as two athletes, namely Mphatso Saukire and Taonere Banda, have been withdrawn from the showpiece on technical grounds, Times Sport has learnt.
Instead, Team Malawi will be represented by Moses Misoya and Estere Nagoli, who made it to the games by wild card, an equivalent of solidarity.
However, Malawi has been dealt a blow as Saukire and Banda qualified for the event, having met minimum entry time during the qualifiers.
However, the organisers have allegedly given slots to athletes who met High Performance Standard (HPS) parameters.
Both Banda and Saukire were scheduled to compete Tuesday.
According to a statement from Malawi Paralympic Committee (MPC), the top two athletes missed the games on technical grounds.
“Unfortunately, although Mphatso Saukire and Taonere Banda met the Minimum Entry Standard (MES), they did not attain High Performance Standard (HPS) [parameters].
“As a result, quotas and High Performance Standard (HPS) criteria were used to determine the final selection. At this stage, our athletes did not meet the final HPS times, which were 50:00.00 seconds for the T12 400m and 1:00:00 for the T13 1500m,” reads the statement signed by MPC President.
“Mphatso Saukire’s time for the T12 event was 53.25 seconds, and Taonere Banda’s time for the T13 event was 1:07.00 minutes.”
The statement claimed that other countries, including Zimbabwe and eSwatini, met similar challenges.
Chiutsi, in an interview, said they could not replace Misoya and Nagoli with Banda and Saukire as the organisers turned down their request.
“Despite these setbacks, all four athletes are highly ranked in the global para-athletics system for their respective events. We remain confident in the abilities of Moses and Estere and believe they will perform admirably in their competitions,” he said.
Meanwhile, Misoya will compete tonight in the T13 400m event while Nagoli will compete on Friday, September 6, in the T12 200m category.
Malawi National Council of Sports Public Relations and Communications Officer Edgar Ntulumbwa said they would comment when they receive the report.
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