Minister of Youth, Sports and Community Empowerment Abdullah Rafiu has stated that he believes the Maldives national team will win a gold medal in the near future at the South Asian Regional Youth Table Tennis Championship. Highlighting the success achieved by the Maldives national table tennis team at the 10th South Asian Regional Youth Table Tennis Championship held in Kathmandu, Nepal, the Minister said that the tournament has brought many advancements for Maldivian players.
“The biggest success is that the 10th South Asian Regional Youth Table Tennis Championship turned out to be a tournament where we saw a lot of improvement,” the Minister noted. The Minister said that the Maldives table tennis team has been representing the country at an international level for many years, but the difference between then and now is the progress made by the players. In this regard, the Minister highlighted that compared to before, the current players’ skill level has improved and advanced significantly, stating that there is not much difference now between the players representing the Maldives in the international arena and the players from other competitive countries.
“The biggest difference we saw was in the points we scored in our sets compared to other countries we played against before and this year. There’s now a very small difference between the two countries,” the Minister said. Noting that this demonstrates the rapid progress of this sport, the Minister said that with a little more effort, a gold medal is not far away. In this regard, the Minister has said that if coaches and players put in extra effort, winning a gold medal is something that can be done very easily.
“If we put in an extra effort, the message we got from this tournament is that reaching gold is very easy. So I would say this is a great success,” he said. The Maldives national team has brought back a silver medal and two bronze medals to the country after competing in the South Asian Regional Youth Table Tennis Championship. The Maldives under-15 and under-19 table tennis teams returned with this success last Thursday. The tournament was held in Nepal from April 24 to 27.”
