{"id":73621,"date":"2019-01-25T09:49:39","date_gmt":"2019-01-25T07:49:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.times.mw\/?p=73621"},"modified":"2019-01-25T09:49:39","modified_gmt":"2019-01-25T07:49:39","slug":"malawi-to-host-region-5-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/2019\/01\/25\/malawi-to-host-region-5-games\/","title":{"rendered":"Malawi to host Region 5 Games"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><em>By Ronald Mpaso:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_61537\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-61537\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.times.mw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/henry-mereka.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-61537\" src=\"http:\/\/www.times.mw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/henry-mereka-300x134.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"134\" srcset=\"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/henry-mereka-300x134.jpg 300w, https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/henry-mereka-768x342.jpg 768w, https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/henry-mereka.jpg 820w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-61537\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">MEREKA\u2014This is an historical event<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Malawi is set to host the 2022 African Union Region Five Games for the first time in the history of the competition.<\/p>\n<p>Malawi National Council of Sports Administration Manager, Henry Mereka, said the games are held between member countries on a rotational basis and 2022 will be Malawi\u2019s turn.<\/p>\n<p>Mereka said the development means Malawi will host almost the entire Southern Africa in various games involving under-20 players.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cThis is an opportunity for Malawi to host a big contingent of teams from within the region. We have been going to other countries such as Botswana and Angola for the games, and it is now the turn of other countries to come to Malawi,\u201d he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Mereka said the competition usually hosts more than 3,500 athletes and officials, hence the need for proper preparations to make it a success.<\/p>\n<p>He said among other necessities, Malawi needs an Olympic size swimming pool, a spacious indoor sports facility and accommodation for the visitors.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>\u201cThere are many benefits from such a competition. These visitors will be here with money to spend. They will not come empty handed.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cWe will also improve our sports infrastructure because of these games. Playing at home will also be good for our athletes as they will have more chances of winning medals,\u201d<\/em> Mereka said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>He said hosting the event will help Malawi to expose more young athletes to international standards and enable them to acquire more skills.<\/p>\n<p>Malawi sent a contingent of more than 100 athletes and officials to last year\u2019s games in Gaborone, Botswana.<\/p>\n<p>Among the country\u2019s success stories of the competition was the junior Queens\u2019 winning of silver at the competition which took place early last month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Ronald Mpaso: Malawi is set to host the 2022 African Union Region Five Games for the first time in the history of the competition. Malawi National Council of Sports Administration Manager, Henry Mereka, said the games are held between member countries on a rotational basis and 2022 will be Malawi\u2019s turn. Mereka said the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":73624,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-73621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73621"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73621\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73625,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73621\/revisions\/73625"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}