Ali Thameem
Maldives exits the Central Asia Volleyball Association (CAVA) U-20 Championship 2024, having lost all sets in five games.
The U-20 championship, held at the Sugathadasa Indoor Stadium in Colombo, had seen six teams compete for the title, three of which are South Asian; Maldives, Nepal and hosts Sri Lanka.
Yesterday’s loss against the hosts in the fifth-place classification game was the last blow in a streak of losses, all of them lost in three straight sets. The team managed to make it to the 20-point mark in two of the three sets in yesterday’s game, but ultimately got overwhelmed by the home side.
The closest Maldives got to winning a set was in the third set of the first fixture; the game against Turkmenistan.
It came down to just one point, Maldives being the first to reach 24 points. Turkmenistan made a last-gasp comeback, striking the first blow of what has since turned out to be a tournament to forget for Maldives.
The rest of the ties have been more of the same; with comfortable wins handed to the Uzbeks, Nepalese, the Kyrgyz and hosts Sri Lankans.
