Mambwe Lucio	Mambwe Eli	Muwowo Juma	Mabiza Jean	Siamupangila Ogar	Nakanyaka Delphine

Badminton body happy with All-Africa Games performance 
By Kalumiana Kalumiana and Namatama Mundia  Wednesday July 25, 2007 The Post Zambia

BADMINTON Zambia (BZ) has said the two medals won by Eli Mambwe and Olga Siamapangila at the just-ended All-Africa Games are a sign that development programme is bearing fruit.
And the Chess Federation of Zambia (CFZ) has said the players who took part at the just-ended All Africa Games have potential to become Grand Masters.Mambwe won a silver medal in the men's singles and collected a bronze in the mixed doubles with Siamapangila.
BZ chairman Geoffrey Chawinga said yesterday that the his association was delighted with the medals because they were won after a lot of work and investment into developmental programmes.
"BZ is elated and very happy with the results from Algeria," Chawinga said.
"The medals are a sign that the results of our player development is baring fruit. The training programmes we have for Eli in Germany and Olga in Sofia, Bulgaria."
Chawinga said Mambwe and Siampangila had not only brought honour to BZ but to the nation as a whole.
"The results from Algeria also show that there is consistency with our players from the Mauritius International and All-Africa Badminton championships and that the exposure helped when we later went to Algeria," he said.
Chawinga went on to say that BZ would not seat on its All-Africa Games laurels and will immediately start planning for forthcoming continental tournaments.
He revealed that BZ's international fixtures committee will meet next week to plan the participation of the junior and senior teams for international events in the coming months.
Meanwhile, CFZ national coordinator Norias Kalinga said yesterday that the players put up a spirited performance which showed that they can be Grand Masters.
"We are very impressed with the performance of our players because it is better than the All-Africa Games that were held in Abuja in 2003 were they got three bronze medals," he said.
Kalinga appealed to the business community to sponsor chess since the players had demonstrated their ability.
"The corporate world should really consider sponsoring chess because there is potential to yield good results," he said.
Chess team reaped five medals, one silver, and four bronze at the just ended All-Africa Games.

Zambia's badminton body unveils 2007 program   Source: Xinhua February 12, 2007

Badminton Zambia (BZ) has released its 2007 local and international program with ten tournaments to be held at home starting next month to November, local newspaper The Post said Saturday.
According to the program released by BZ general secretary Godfrey Masuwa, the season will start with the Top 16 Championships on March 10 at the National Sports Developments Center (NASDEC) in Lusaka.
Masuwa said some of the international events are the Kenya Open from April 27 to 29, the African Championships and Mauritius Open in May.
Others include the All Africa Games from July 12 to 23 in Algeria and the Eighth Africa Junior Championships to be held in Botswana in August.
Masuwa said the local fixtures are subject to change to accommodate international engagements.

Badminton in Zambia

Badminton in Zambia is quite a popular sport. In the recent years the Zambia badminton is witnessing a growing interest among the Zambian youth with many youngsters actively playing the sport.
Badminton Zambia is the official body responsible for overseeing badminton in Zambia. It is responsible for chalking out the various international and local badminton competitions that the Zambian team participates in. The schedule for the 2007 badminton tournaments has been announced by Badminton Zambia.
The badminton players of Zambia is due to play in ten competitions in the year 2007. The season commenced on 10th of March, with the Top 16 Championships to be played in the capital city of Lusaka at the National Sports Developments Center.
Zambian badminton players also participate in international tournaments like the Mauritius Open, the Kenya Open, the All African Games, the African Championships and the African Junior Championships.
At the Kenya International Women's Singles held in 2006, the championship title was won by the Zambian player Olga Siamapangila. Donald Mabo, Juma Muwowo, Charles Kalonde and Lucio Mambwe are the players included in the men's badminton team.
Geoffrey Masuwa is the general secretary of Badminton Zambia. Recently, he has been appointed as a technical commissioner. He along with five other commissioners will be responsible for supervising the badminton programs arranged by the local committees, which are parts of the All Africa Games.
Badminton in Zambia is represented by the Zambia Badminton Association, which is located in the capital city of Lusaka.

ARCHIVES

Mambwe’s African Zone Six champBy Sports Reporter                   September 28, 2005 - October 06, 2005 Times of Zambia
ZAMBIA’S badminton ace Eli Mambwe has been crowned African Zone Six champion after winning the men’s individual category at the just-ended championship in Gaborone, Botswana.
While Mambwe got the men singles’ gold medal, Zambia minted silver in the team event after losing to defending champions South Africa in the finals.
Mambwe fought back from a set down to beat South African Vilgone Liane 14-17, 15-11, 15-14 and win the title.
The Zambian champion needed one hour and 10 minutes to break the South African player in the finals.
But Zambia’s budding starlet Olga Siamupangila failed to crack Shannel Dupresis of South Africa in the women’s finals as she tumbled 2-1 to settle for a silver medal.
Siamupangila lost the first set 10-13 but managed to win the second 11-8 before crashing out in the third set 3-11.
Mambwe’s older brother Lucio lost the quarter-finals while veteran Mubanga Kaite gave up in the semi-finals and Zambia’s other women top seed Jean Mabiza suffered a pulled muscle during the team event against South Africa.
In the team event, Zambia lost 3-2 in the finals to allow defending champions South Africa to retain the title they won in 1999.
To reach the finals, Zambia beat their hapless hosts Botswana 4-1 to set a nail-biting final encounter against South Africa.
Zambia Badminton Association (ZBA) general secretary Godfrey Masuwa, who was team leader in Botswana, said the squad played well as the tournament had given the players good preparations for next year’s Melbourne Commonwealth Games in Australia.
Masuwa said the event gauged the players’ strength as they were stretched to their limits and also gave them an insight of the kind of training they needed for an international competition.
He thanked Guardall and Night Hawk Security companies for their support to the team.

Two more arrive for junior badminton championships  August 2001  (Times of Zambia)

By Clara Sinkala
TWO more countries - Nigeria and Mauritius - arrived yesterday to compete in the Under-19 All-Africa junior badminton championships set for Lusaka.
The first batch of Nigerians arrived soon after Mauritius, bringing the total number of countries already in Lusaka for the fifth edititon of the continental championships scheduled for August 20 to 26 at the National Sports Development Centre (Nasdec) to seven.
A check at the National Assembly Motel revealed that players from South Africa, Kenya, Ethiopia, Botswana, Mauritius, Algeria, hosts Zambia and the first batch of Nigerians - four players and three officials had already arrived.
Nigerian coach George Shitta said they had to come in two batches because of problems with flight connections from Nigeria to South Africa which were fully booked.
Shitta said the rest of the eight players and one official were expected later.
Shitta was optimistic that Nigeria would scoop the tournament because most of the players in his camp were internationally exposed.
“By the grace of God we will win the tournament because most of our players are exposed. We hope to enjoy the tournament especially going by the number of countries participating. The hospitality of the Zambian people is also good,” Shitta said.
And in the Zambian camp, top player Elie Mambwe said he expected to put up a good performance because he had been exposed to many international outings having featured in Denmark in 1996 where he lost in the quarter-finals of the All-World Junior championships.
He said he had also played in Norway and won a bronze medal in the South African senior International championship in 1999 and again participated in the Thomas Cup in the same year in India and came fourth among other successes.
Another player Juma Muwowo said he was scared of Mauritians, South Africans and Nigerians whom he regarded as the threats to Zambia because he considered those from the three countries to be very skilled as compared to Zambians.
Ethiopia, who were the first to arrive, appeared defeated long before the tournament started.
Coach Abebe Teferra said his players had come to Zambia to learn since they were having a feel of a big time African championship for the first time.