Male, Maldives, May 30, 2015 – The Volleyball Association of Maldives have sent the AVC full  details of their activities throughout the year 2014, making clear that the VAM have become one of the AVC’s most active affiliated national federations.

The full-house activities have significantly shown the VAM’s strong need to maximise their volleyball learning aside from gaining experience and exposure both in volleyball and beach volleyball by taking part in international competitions.

In the school level, two beach volleyball for kids aged between 14 to 19 years including the 5th School Beach Volleyball Festival, which attracted a total of 125 kids from 12 schools including 85 boys to take part. In the Cool Volley Festival, more than 280 kids aged between 9 to 13 years participated in two days in March, with volleyball kits, t-shirts and manuals given away.

The Inter School Volleyball Tournament 2014 drew a huge attention from 36 teams to vie for the top honour. More than 450 children both boys and girls from 12 schools (primary 5, secondary 4, higher education 3) stood  a chance to sharpen their skill and learn from one another.

In terms of the national level, the VAM hosted the President’s Cup (Male City Edition),with 120 female players from 10 teams taking part in May, while the other President’s Cup (North Area Edition) in December saw a total of 14 women’s teams from Northern part of Maldives participate.

In addition, in June and November, the National League 1st Division – Round B and Round A was held among six teams qualified from 2013 National League Ranking.

The VAM also held the National Men’s Volleyball Championship in early December, with the winners landing the trophy from HE the President of Maldives. In the same month, the National Men’s Beach Volleyball Tournament was organised among 20 club teams and 44 pairings.

As for the National Women’s Championship in October, eight teams took part in Male’s City, while six club teams (senior) strut their stuff in the National Men’s League 2nd Division.

The VAM Youth Championship 2014 (age group is U19 for girls and U21 for boys) was also held, with 14 teams including eight boys’ teams taking part.

Other competitions which included the InterResort Volleyball Championship was organised to promote the sport among volleyball-lovers in various organisations and companies.

Apart from competition, training programmes ranging from national to international level, sanctioned by FIVB, were hosted in the country, while some participants travelled to other countries to take part in courses hosted by the FIVB. Among them were the FIVB Coaching Course Level 1, the FIVB Technical Seminar Physical Conditioning and the FIVB  School Volleyball Symposium.

The VAM also sent their teams to compete in the AVC Youth Boys U17 Championship in Sri Lanka, AVC Men’s Juniors U19, the Asian Games in Incheon, Korea, the Asian Beach Games in Phuket, Thailand as well as friendly matches in Nepal.

In January 2015, the VAM hosted the AVC Continental Cup Sub Zonal Matches of Central Zone, which was supposed to be held in December 2014 in India.