East Africa guest, the Twiga Stars of Tanzania, have been crowned the COSAFA 2021 Championships winners after a 1-0 victory over Malawi in the final at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium on Saturday.
This comes months after the country’s first female President, Samia Suluhu Hassan had made a derogatory comment on the female athletes in an interview with BBC.
The Scorchers keeper blocked Fatuma Suleimani’s long-range strike but it landed right on 19-year-old Enekia Kasonga Lunyamila who buried the rebound home and handed Tanzania the win in the 64th minute. The 19-year-old led Tanzania to the COSAFA U20 Women’s Championship, winning the golden boot while at it.
Ealier Fazila Chembekezo and Ireen Khumalo also had missed chances for Malawi. It was all celebrations for the Tanzanian side that had never got to the final of this tournament since 2019.
Tanzania finished as the only unbeaten team at this year’s Championship and now hold titles in all the women’s categories in COSAFA, Under-17, Under-20 and senior football.
Twiga Stars captain who was also MVP for the final was voted Player of the Tournament. South Africa’s Sibulele Holweni scooped the top scorer’s Award with 5 goals, and Zambia’s Petronela Musole was voted Goalkeeper of the Tournament and Zambia picking up the Fair Play award.
Tanzania, Uganda and South Sudan were the three guest sides that featured in the 12-team tournament which kicked off on September 28.
MOLATsportgist 