Ascent Academy were crowned champions of this year’s Goshen Fam Women’s National Championship after beating Malawi Defence Force ( MDF) Lionesses 1-0 at Bingu National Stadium Lilongwe on Sunday.
After five days of intriguing women’s football, Ascent showed great character as they maintained their dominance over Lionesses to win the championship on their second attempt.
The Lilongwe based side finished as runners-up during last year’s edition following 5-3 loss to Kukoma Ntopwa Women at Mpira Stadium in Blantyre.
Marium Mnenula scored the priceless goal in the 15th minute to ensure her side finished the tournament with a 100 percent record after winning all the three matches, scoring seven goals without conceding none.
Ascent pocketed K8 million plus a trophy while runners-up Lionesses got K4 million.
On top of that, Ascent have qualified for the Caf Champions League/ Cosafa qualifiers slated to take place in South Africa later this year.
Ascent coach Thom Mkolongo praised the players for a good performance.
” We deserved to win the competition. The girls were first on the ball. We could have scored more goals but we also missed some chances,” said Mkolongo.
Lionesses coach John Kaputa admitted his charges were second on the ball on the day.
“Congratulations to Ascent for their hard work. We tried our best but it was not our day,” said Kaputa.
In the third place play-off, Silver Strikers Ladies defeated rivals Civil Service United Women 4-1 at the same venue.
Silver pocketed K2 million for finishing third. In the individual awards, Mnenula was named Player of the Tournament for helping Ascent to win the competition while Mkolongo was named Coach of the Tournament.
Fazila Chiyembekezo won the Golden Boot award after scoring three goals.
Football Association of Malawi ( Fam) president Fleetwood Haiya and Prophet Shepherd Bushiri graced the final.
In his remarks, Haiya said the association will invest more in the game to take it to the next level.
“As Fam, we are making sure we support them to participate in international competition. The level of football has been quite impressive throughout the tournament,” said Haiya.
National Women’s Football Association ( NWFA) President Adelaide Migogo was impressed with the turn out of fans during the tournament.
” We are very happy this is what we expected and all the teams were hungry to win the championship,” said Migogo.
Goshen City sponsored the competition to the tune of K21 million towards the uniforms, medals and individuals awards while Fam pumped K50 million into the competition towards the prizes for the teams, subventions, referees and general match organisation.
Fam provided K1 million to each of the 10 teams that qualified for the national phase. On top of that, the association also provided extra K1 million to the semi-finalists.
