The past month has been a busy one for Handball Maldives with a junior referee course and inter-school tournament taking place over the past few weeks.

 

Junior Referees

From 10-18 April Handball Maldives ran their ‘Junior Referee’ course at their headquarters in the capital, Male, the first step on the ladder of refereeing and officiating qualifications in the Maldives.

 

After the junior course, officials can then progress to their Level 3, Level 2 and Level 1 certificates before reaching the top with courses for technical delegates and course instructors.

 

19 participants ranging in age from 14-19 years old, took part in the Junior Referee course which included several subjects from both a theoretical and practical perspective including; rules of the game, how to manage the official table during a match, scorekeeping duties, timekeeping duties and the duties of a referee.

 

The young referees had little time after qualifying before taking to the court – a few weeks later they officiated at the ‘3rd Milo Inter-School Tournament’ either as referees or table officials.

 

In addition to this first tournament they will also now whistle at a variety of matches throughout the country including other school tournaments and their own inter-class handball tournaments. The newly-qualified whistlers will also work as table officials at Maldives senior competition matches.

 

In June, further referee courses will run which will be open to the 19 participants.

 

“All participants did their best on the course,” said Badhavi Shaan, Technical Director and Chief Referee of Handball Maldives. “They were all very impressive and their performance was good. We look forward to watching them develop as referees and officials and help promote handball in the Maldives.”

 

Maldives men’s national team head coach Amzad Hossain was also present on the course and was delighted to see the newly-qualified officials take charge of their first games.

 

“This is an important first step on what we hope will be a lengthy career in handball for these referees,” he said. “All the participants really did an excellent job and they were excellent in the inter-school tournament they whistled at straight after passing their level one.”

 

Maldives Inter-School Tournament 2017

The ‘3rd Milo Inter-School Tournament’ completed this week in Male. The tournament featured boys and girl’s teams aged U12, U14 and U16 from across the Male Atoll in the Maldives.

 

65 teams with a total of 910 players participated in the tournament played at the Maafannu Ground in Male.

 

Boys Tournament – Winners

U12 – Jamaaluddeen School

U14 – Thaajudden School

U16 – Dharumavantha School

 

Girls Tournament – Winners

U12 – Jamaaluddeen School

U14 – Muhyiddin School

U16 – Maafushi School

 

Photos: Alvin Fahmy/Handball Maldives

 

For more information about the Maldives Handball Federation, visit www.facebook.com/handballmaldives