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| Sports |
| Coke Trophy finals start in Lilongwe |
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by
Leonard Sharra, 07 August 2003
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18:43:41
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A Northern Region Division select side had a flying start at the national finals of the K1.5 million Coca Cola Trophy tournament after beating South East Division 2-1 in a crucial Group B match played at Silver Stadium in Area 47 Thursday.
Until this game, there had been no winners in the first two games involving the North and Central East as well as South West versus Central West, which all ended in draws.
The Northern Region students were held to a goalless draw by Central East in the opening game before South West drew 1-1 with Central East in the second game.
Featuring goalkeeper Bright Nyirongo and midfielder Gerald Nkungula from Super League side Civo United, Central West, whose girls side recently won the Youth Alert girls football trophy, found it tough going against the well drilled South East, which has other exciting players from Blantyre and Districts Football League.
For the past three years teams from the Central West Division have dominated competitions run by the Malawi Schools Sports Association (Massa) but this year, the division will need more than luck to win the tournament.
Massa general secretary Justin Saidi confessed that this year’s competition will be the toughest as every team has brought the cream from its division.
“As results for the games that have so far been played tell, the competition this year is very stiff. Even from the standard of play it is very difficult to predict the winner,” said Saidi after the first three games.
Shire Highlands was sorting it out with South West in a group A qualifier Thursday evening.
Sponsors Coca Cola have pumped K1.5 million into this year’s competition and according to Southern Bottlers public relations officer Rosita Dacruz, the winner will get K130,000 plus a trophy. Runners-up will receive K60,000, third placed team K50,000. Teams from positions four to six will get K40,000, K25,000 and K20,000 respectively. |
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