Saturday 04 / May / 2024
Muscat: An Oman Sail racing team has finished its season on a high after winning three classes at the highly competitive Arab Sailing Championship in Egypt.
The 15-strong Oman squad raced against determined opposition at the regional event in sometimes challenging conditions in Alexandria, with teams from Egypt, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain and Iraq also taking part.
The Oman Sail team took a clean sweep of the top four places in the Optimist class, with Mohammed Al Qasmi earning two race wins to take first place ahead of Saleem Al Alawi, Jihad Al Hasni and Nibras Al Awaisi.
Ahmed Al Balushi won all five races to dominate the 19-strong Laser Radial class, while Abdul Malik Al Hinai won the Laser 4.7 class just a point ahead of his teammate Al Motasem Al Farsi in second.
Hussain Al Jabri won the first two races in the Laser Standard class, but was edged into second place overall by Abdulla Janahi, a member of the Bahrain team.
The RSX Windsurfing class saw Oman’s Abdul Majeed Al Hadhrami in 2nd place of the U21 category, with a highly competitive Algeria team taking the top three overall places.
The racing in Alexandria was cut short by bad weather, which saw the last day of competition cancelled.
“The competition at the Arab Sailing Championship was as fierce as we had expected,” said Rashid Al Kindi, Oman Sail’s Acting Director of Sailing. “However the Oman Sail team showed how far it has come over the course of the season. The results were close in many cases but the sailors were able hit their targets and demonstrate their developing skills.
“The Optimist sailors confirmed the ability they showed at the 2019 Optimist Asian and Oceanian Championship at Mussanah Sports City recently, as did the Laser 4.7 squad. It is great that the whole team have been able to finish the season on a high.”
The racing squad was comprised of sailors from all four of Oman Sail’s sailing schools, as well as the National Performance Team, and were supported in Egypt by Oman Sail coaches and team leaders including Mohsin Al Busaidi.
