Dheema to compete in two WTT Youth Series tournaments

Maldivian table tennis prodigy, Fathimath Dheema Ali is set to take part in two international competitions organized by International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF).

President of Table Tennis Association of Maldives (TTAM), Ali Rasheed told RaajjeMV that Dheema will compete in the two competitions -one in Oman and the other in Portugal- under the World Table Tennis Youth Series.

As such, she will be competing in the World Table Tennis Youth Star Contender tournament to be held in Lisbon, Portugal from 18-22 September while the Youth Contender event is set for 10-16 October on Muscat, Oman.

Dheema will play in the U-15 category in both competitions.

In April of this year, the ITTF revealed that Dheema ranked eighth place in the World Table Tennis Junior Ranking’s U-15 category. This makes Dheema the the first and only Maldivian athlete to rank in the Top 10 of world rankings.

As of now, however, Dheema ranks at 11th place, which remains a notable feat.

While Dheema is a shining star in the sport of table tennis, her first prominent win was in 2016 when she won champion of a table tennis competition in Malaysia, playing in the U-11 category. She went on to win champion titles in Lanka’s Junior National Table Tennis, playing in the U-10 category.

Looking into more of Dheema’s achievements, the young athlete earned three gold medals in 2019, in the Indian Ocean Island Games (IOIG) at the age of 11, becoming the most successful Maldivian athlete at the IOIG.

As well as earning a gold medal in the South Asia Hopes competition, she earned a silver medal in Asia Hopes competition and qualified for World Hopes competition. Further, she won championship two consecutive years in the National Table Tennis singles.

Dheema says that her current goal is to qualify for the Olympics and bring her home country a proud win.