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Malawi’s top female athlete Catherine Chikwakwa on Wednesday failed to reach the finals of the world athletics championship currently taking place in Finland after finishing on position 29 out of the 30 participants who competed in the 5000m heats.
This means that Chikwakwa, who went to Finland together with Malawi’s promising male athlete Francis Khanje, will not participate in the event’s annual finals which are slated for Saturday. Khanje was expected to run in the men’s 5000 metres category on Thursday evening.
The ladies 5000 metres category was won by Ethiopian Tirunesh Dibaba who is also the category’s world champion. She was followed by a fellow Ethiopian Meselech Melkamu. Joanne Pavey from Britain was third. The only person Chikwakwa beat was Jessica Augusto from Portugal.
Athletics chairman for the Southern Region Mzee Makawa could not be reached for his comment on Thursday as he was reported to be outside the country on personal business but a local athletics coach Ruth Nzengo, partly attributed the athlete’s failure to poor preparations.
“I don’t know exactly why she lost but I think the problem is that she was training alone in Blantyre without any coach.
“That best explains why we should be camping these athletes whenever they are going for a tournament abroad,” said Nzengo, who did not train Chikwakwa.
Last year, Chikwakwa won silver medal at the world junior athletics championship held in Italy in July but failed to qualify for that year’s Athens-hosted Olympic Games where she participated on solidarity grounds together with 800m runner Kondwani Chiwina.
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