Abdulla iyaan ilyas
A total of 256 athletes from 17 athletics clubs competed in the 12th MILO Athletics Association Championship held this past weekend.
For a fourth straight year, Dhivehi Sifainge Club was awarded best club among men’s events. Addu Athletics Club was awarded best in the women’s category. Addu Athletics also won the best club in U16 boys’ category, and the best club among U16 girls’ went to Track and Field Association.
DSC’s shot-putter Hassan Shamoon and Track and Field Association’s middle-distance runner Zeek Ashraf were awarded the best male and female athletes at the
Both winners had won two gold medals each. Shamoon, who represented Dhivehi Sifainge Club (DSC), won gold in both the men’s shot put and javelin-throw events. Zeek won gold in the women’s 800m and 1500m runs.
Zeek ran for her club Track and Field Association, and secured first place in the 800m race with 02:23.94 on the clock. In the 1500m race, she crossed the finish line in 05:15.29. This was a meet record and over a ten-second improvement for Zeek, from her latest 1500m heat at the U18 Asian Athletics Championship.
One of Shamoon’s gold medals was achieved at the shot-put event, when he threw the ball to 10.46 metres. He flew the discus to a distance of 29.06 metres, winning a second gold medal, and securing the best male athlete at this year’s association championships. Shamoon was also the best athlete at the National Athletics Championships nine years ago.
Mohamed Yoonus Bin Hussain Bin Ibrahim, who represented Addu Athletics in the U16 category and won three gold medals – 80m hurdles, 400m dash, and triple jump – was awarded best athlete among his age group. Shareef Sports’ Aminath Auha Abdhul Rahman was awarded best female athlete in the age category.
Although 26 meet records were broken across the 56 track-and-field events of this year’s association championships, just one of them was a national record. Yoosuf Naik Vajeeh, who renewed the U16 high-jump record for the fourth time, flew over the bar at 1.86 meters, breaking the national record previously held for 16 years by the T-Rex basketball player Ahmed Zabeer.
