Maldives youth netball team through to semi-finals after a four-win run

The Maldives under-21 national netball team proceeds to the semi-finals of the Asian Youth Netball Championship 2025 currently being hosted at Jeonju, South Korea after an impressive four-out-of-five win run.

Group A of the championship has countries with a higher ranking in the South East Asian netball sphere. The countries are India, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong.

Group B of the championship has some tough contenders as well, with countries like Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, South Korea, Chinese Taipei, Japan and of course Maldives.

Of the five matches that have concluded in the groups stage, Maldives has been victorious against all countries except Pakistan. Maldives will be facing off against Chinese Taipei in the semi-finals on Thursday, 3rd July at 10am (Maldives time).

The Maldivian under-21 national netball team has, almost, an entirely new roster of players, save for five members. Coach Neesha Haleem is quite pleased with the results, especially since the team is mostly comprised of less experienced but high-potential players.

"Not only am I happy with the result, I'm happy with their performance as well. We've come out the gate running after a five-year hiatus", Neesha stated.

The team began training for this championship three months prior, with them participating in a competition hosted in Hong Kong during the beginning of June. Maldives came in third in that competition.

1. Maldives 51 - 26 Chinese Taipei

2. Maldives 59 - 32 Japan

3. Maldives 73 - 20 Saudi Arabia

4. Maldives 129 - 03 Korea

5. Maldives 39 - 49 Pakistan