Tholal Claims Result Decent Considering Situation

President of the Athletics Association Mohamed Tholal has stated that the Olympic results are decent considering the situation due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the lack of training opportunities for Maldivian athletes.

As Hassan Saaid was unable to qualify for the heat in the 100-meter sprint preliminaries, the rest of the Maldivian athletes have bid farewell to the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. In response to a question from Dhiyares, Tholal claimed that the result was acceptable considering the situation.

“There has been no training for almost a year and a half. We had almost a month to train, that too abroad. There was no chance to train in Male’ during the lockdown. Considering the current situation, I do not believe the result was bad”, said Tholal.

He highlighted that Saaid completed the time trial race to choose an Olympic athlete in 10.80 seconds, and finishing Saturday’s race in 10.70 seconds, earning “Season Best”, is fairly decent.

When asked whether responsibility must be assumed for failure to provide training opportunities, he claimed that it was not as if it was difficult to find a training camp, and that that the current situation did not allow for training to take place. “No one needs to take responsibility for a natural disaster”, he said. “We got the slightest chance in India, so we sent the athletes to train in India for a month”.