SA Wheelchair basketball captain says qualifying for World Champs will be a dream come true

The defending champions will be going into battle in the 2025 IWBF U23 Men’s Africa Championship qualifiers against formidable teams - Libya, DR Congo, Kenya and Liberia.

The tournament kicks off on Thursday at the Mandeville Indoor Sports Centre in Johannesburg.

Speaking exclusively to SABC Sport, Mlife says winning the competition and qualifying for the 2025 IWBF U23 Men’s World Championship set for Brazil later this year, will be a great achievement.

"Qualifying as a team will be a great thing for us but also a dream come true for the team. To get there we need to put the work in, stay disciplined, listen to the coaches and again we'll see from there on," Mlife said.

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Mlife says they have been working hard preparing for the tournament, and they are happy that they will contend with one less opponent following the withdrawal of Egypt.

"Preparations for the tournament are very great. We've been working really hard with the coaches, also the guys who have more experience than us they've been helping us a lot. So, we are ready. The absence of Egypt doesn't change anything for us as a team but that helped us because it's minus one trouble," he added.

With South Africa hosting the African qualifiers, they are also the defending champions, and Mlife says they can feel the pressure, but they will find their way.

"South Africa are the defending champions, we have that pressure of not wanting to drop our performance and pressure to qualify. So, we have that pressure only but we will work through it."