Maldives secures 7th spot in Asian Youth Netball Rankings

Maldives' women's Under 21 netball team lost with 35-60 to Pakistan in Group B of the Asian Youth Netball Championship yesterday.

Group B - which includes teams on ranks 6 to 11 in Asia - held the final match to select new sixth and seventh rankings. With Maldives' loss in the finals, they are now at the seventh spot, with Pakistan at sixth.

Group A features the best five teams in Asia. These are India, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong.

Although they lost in the finals, the young Maldivian team showed an exceptional performance in the tournament and achieved remarkable results. They won five of the six matches played before the finals. Their one loss was to Pakistan during the league rounds.

In the league rounds, Maldives won the first match against Chinese Taipei with a score of 26-51. The second match was against Japan, where Maldives secured a win with 32-59. The third match saw the team win against Saudi Arabia with 20-73. In the last match of the league rounds, Maldives lost to Pakistan with 39-49. Following this, they won the semifinals with 39-51, playing against Chinese Taipei.

This year, all except five players on the Maldives' team are completely new to international tournaments.