World’s young talents brush up skills at Musannah

MUSCAT: The world’s best young sailors concluded the seventh edition of Oman Sail’s Musannah Race Week, which saw 120 from 20 countries descending to Al Musannah Sports City for seven days packed with sailing workshops and intense racing in ideal sailing conditions. Through a mixture of theory and practice, the young participants gained knowledge in the Optimist, Laser 4.7, Laser Radial and Techno 293 classes.

The week saw intense competition between the athletes and proved to be a valuable opportunity for young Omani sailors to improve their scores from 2016, particularly in the Laser Radial and Laser 4.7. Zakariya al Wahabi, who excelled in the Optimist class in the previous years, gained the top leaderboard position in the Laser 4.7 followed by Ahmed al Hammadi from the United Arab Emirates, then Papapanagiotou Starvo from Greece in third place. Zakariya’s peers, Salim al Alawi and Marwan al Jabry got in 5th and 6th place respectively.

First place in the Laser Radial class went to Musab al Hadi, who is known for his performance in the Olympic 49er class. He was followed closely by Dawood Abdulla from Bahrain, then Hussain al Jabry in third place overall. The Optimist class racing saw Stefano Vial from Peru coming in the leading position, followed by Lucas Vedila from Argentina, then in third place Richard Schultehei from Malta. It was an Omani fourth place represented by Al Mutassem al Farsi, then Mohammed al Qassmi in 10th place overall.

The competitions in the Techno class were segmented in the Open race which saw all Omani entries, the Under-15s, and the Under-17s. Mukhtar Al Mujaini lead the fleet in the Techno Open race followed by Waleed Al Kindi, Hammad Al Mujaini and Sultan Al Balushi respectively. In the Under15s, Anna Morvai from Hungary was the overall leader, followed by Mohammed Al Balushi, then Ali Al Sarhi in third place. In the Under-17s class, Abdullah Al Sarhi gained the leader position followed by Ali al Omrani, Balint Morvai from Hungary.

Rashid al Kindi, Chairman of Oman Sailing Committee and Vice-president of Asian Sailing Federation, said, “We are delighted to host a number of promising talents to come to participate in the event. The week proved to be once again a valuable experience for the young athletes since it exposes them to a great deal of knowledge as well as high levels of competition. The sailors can now gear up for the next challenge with boosted confidence and determination.”

The prize giving ceremony was held under the patronage of Shaikh Ghusn bin Zahir al Abri, Deputy Wali of Musannah.