Yasin advances to third round, both Kayans advance to second round

The Asian Surfing Championship (ASC) that is currently taking place in Tamil Nadu, India sees Maldives' own junior contestants Yasin Ahmed Nasheed advance to the third round, with Kayan Abdulla Areef (Kaiputty) and Yusuf Kayan Hamdan Zaki (Kai Zaki) advance to the second round in the Men's Junior Category.

To advance in the Junior Category, contestants need to place first or second in the heat events to progress to the third round, with surfers that place third securing their place in the second round. Senior category contestants can only advance to the third round if they place first in the heat events.

Yasin placed second in Heat 5, with Kayan Areef and Yusuf Kayan placing third in Heat 4 and Heat 1 respectively.

Heat 5 of the first round saw Yasin place second with a score of 11.73, with a valiant effort against Chinese Taipei's John John Chan, who scored first pace with a score of 12.44. Saudi Arabia's Yousef Fadhil placed third with a score of 0.94.

Kayan Areef placed third in Heat 4 of round 1 with a score of 4.17, with first place being claimed by Chinese Taipei's Chia-Chi Yu scoring 15.27 and second place being claimed by China's Laihao Zhang who scored 11.16.

Yusuf Kayan placed third in Heat 1 of round 1 with a close score of 11.10. First place was claimed by Chinese Taipei's Ming-Jang Liu with a score of 12.83, with second place being claimed by China's Shulou Jiang with a score of 12.10.

Ahmed Agil (Ammadey) is currently competing in the Men's Open of the championship, placing first in Heat 11 of the first round, securing his place in the third round. Hood Ahmed (Hoobz) and Ismail Rasheed (Smiley) placed second in their respective heat categories, advancing to the second round.

Maldives' own Rishtha Shuja, Mariyam Rahil Naseem (Aaya) and Shaziya Saeed (Saazu) who have been competing in the Women's Open Category of the ASC have also secured their places in the second round.

The Maldives coach is competitive surfer Hussain Areef (Iboo), who claimed bronze in the first two Asian Surfing Championships.

This is the first time a junior set of participants and a female set of participants, of which this is the first time a female team of more than one, is set to compete in a competition abroad. The official sponsor for the Maldives national surfing team is BML Islamic, with the bank offering their services to the Maldives Surfing Association since 2022. This sponsorship has resulted in the bank extending a significant amount of help to the national surfing team. BML Islamic is also offering their services to MSA's National Junior Surfing Championship, a competition that aims to further nurture younger surfing talents in the country.