Decent, decorated players nominated from TT: Association

The President of the Table Tennis Association of Maldives (TTAM) Ali Rasheed (Ayya) has said today that all of the table tennis athletes who were nominated for the Maldives Sports Awards were those who had played well in the 2024 competition and had made placements in said competition.

The Maldives Sports Awards, a ceremony held to acknowledge the performance of athletes and officials during various competitions in 2024, will be held tomorrow night at the Social Center.

On social media, people have been questioning some of the nominations regarding the awards held by the Sports Ministry. Some people have also made accusations of negligence towards some associations in nominating athletes.

The accusation was also made against table tennis, with TTAM President Ali Rasheed having stated that the association had nominated players who had decorated themselves with victories in the domestic competitions held in 2024.

"I currently have in my possession the data that has been collected in the 2024 competitions which includes the names of the athletes we want to nominate for the sports award," said Ali Rasheed.

"All of the players we have nominated performed and won at the 2024 competitions."

The President of the association said that TTAM looks at players who performed and showed good results in domestic competitions in the selection of players for the national team, sports awards and sending players for training scholarships.

"We cannot select any particular player for the national team. The top five players from the three yearly ranking tournaments will be chosen for the national team," said Ali Rasheed.

"We consider the results from players who performed at the competitions when we nominate players for the awards and in sending players for high performance training scholarships."

The award ceremony is being held by the Sports Ministry after a one-year hiatus. As per general regulations, the 2024 awards ceremony should have been held last year. However, the ceremony was not held.

An official from the Sports Ministry stated that Minister Abdulla Rafiu is thinking of holding the 2025 award ceremony sometime this year.

The red carpet event for the award ceremony will be held tomorrow night at 8:00pm at the Social Center.