Ali Thameem
The men’s open division of National Ban’du Filaa Challenge has a champion younger than ever. Sixteen-year-old Eyan Ahmed has rode his last wave to glory yesterday evening, winning the final heat against Ali Javed (Jaatte).
Eyan won the men’s open final by locking in his third (4.83) and fifth (5.50) waves, gaining a 2.5 point edge over the defending champion, who had earned 7.83 points from his second (4.0) and third (3.83) waves of the final.
Eyan made his way to the final by winning the semifinal heat against Aamin Umar Moosa, the Junior National Champion. The two had rode their best waves on the first and third attempts of the heat, but Eyan had a slight edge in results over Aamin in both the waves. But most impressively, Eyan’s first attempt in the semifinal (7.17) turned out to be the highest-scoring wave of the day.
Eyan had impressed in the qaurter-finals as well, defeating Aswan Mohamed by scoring 5.00 and 4.17 in hist first and fourth waves respectively.
Runner-up Javed had triumphed over Ashraf Hassan in a semifinal that had seen seven waves rode by each, Javed ultimately making it to the final on a 3.14 point difference.
The quarterfinal heats of Men’s open in National Ban’du Filaa Challenge took off yesterday morning, along with semifinals and finals of drop-knee, junior men’s and masters divisions.
Eyan had also made it to the final of Junior Men’s division this evening, and won silver, having scored just 0.8 points less than the new Junior Champion, Mohamed Azaan Ahmed.
This year is Eyan’s third in the National Bodyboarding League. From 2022 to 2024, the teenager had climbed from 13th to 9th, and now to the 1st rank in the Ban’du Filaa Challenge.
