Sailor Fauzi needs to be more than an optimist to strike gold
SAILING wonderboy Fauzi Kaman is stepping up to a bigger challenge in the waters off Subic
Bay.
Fauzi will partner Umar Al Farouk Mohd Zahawi to try to defend the SEA Games men’s International 420 class title for Malaysia at the Philippines Games next week.
Fauzi has bagged double gold medals – in individual and team optimist – at the 2015 and 2017 SEA Games outings.
It will be his fourth SEA Games outing in Subic and Fauzi admitted that it is getting tougher to keep up his winning ways.
Fauzi was only 16 whe n he contributed gold for Malaysia in the laser 4.7 class at the Indonesian Asian Games last year.
It was his debut appearance and he managed to end a 12-year gold drought for Malaysia in Asian Games sailing but that was in the past.
“I have been partnering Umar since the start of the year. I had to move up to the international 420 as I am too old for the 4.7 class,” said Fauzi.
“It’s a tougher challenge as we are up against more experienced sailors, especially from Singapore and Thailand.
“Previously, I had to only worry about the weather and my own condition. Now it also depends on teamwork as I have a partner but we will fight for the best result.
“I have always finished on the podium in every SEA Games so far. I hope it will stay the same in the Philippines,” said Fauzi, who made his SEA Games debut with a bronze in optimist team in Myanmar in 2013.
Malaysia were overall champions in sailing with 6-4-4 when they hosted the SEA Games two years ago.
Besides the gold from the optimist team and individual, Malaysia also won the laser radial (Ahmad Latif Khan), international 420 (Mohd Uzair Amin Yusof-Naquib Eiman Shahrin) and international 470 (Mohd Faizal Norizan-Ahmad Syukri Abdul Aziz) in the men’s category while in the women’s category, Nurul Shazwanie Saad won the optimist event.