Malawi Under-20 national football team has stepped up preparations for the 11th edition of the African Union Sports Council (Ausc) Region 5 Youth Games scheduled for July in Namibia. The team, which is in camp at Blantyre Teacher’s Training College, on Saturday beat Thondwe United 2-0 in a strength-testing match at Mpira Stadium in Blantyre. Madalisto Safuli and Lameck Mithi were on target for the junior Flames. But despite the victory, coach Pofera Jegwe said there is still a lot of work to be done before the regional tournament. He said: “Good performance. As our first strength-testing match in this camping and, Thondwe being a Premier League side, they really gave us a good run, but still we have some areas to work on, more especially the transition from our midfield going upfront. We were disjointed at times, but we will polish up as time goes on.” Athletes from 14 sports codes are in camp which Malawi National Council of Sports (MNCS) has organised. The training camp started on April 13 and will run up to April 25. The 14-day camp features about 300 athletes from football, netball, volleyball, basketball, lawn tennis, table tennis, e-sports, boxing, swimming, karate, judo, athletics, special Olympics and para-athletics (visually impaired). This is the third and last of such training camps which Sports Council lined up for the regional competition. The first one was held in August 2024 while the second one runs from December 23 2024 to January 2 2025 at Henry Henderson Institute in Blantyre. Meanwhile, Sports Council chief executive officer Henry Kamata on Friday visited the athletes at Blantyre Teacher’s Training College, to encourage them to work hard ahead of the games. He also announced that the athletes will for the first time, fly to Namibia unlike in the past when they travelled by road.