Saturday 05 / October / 2024
Muscat: Oman sailors dominated the ILCA classes after the opening day of races at the 13th edition of Mussanah Race Week (MRW), organised by Oman Sail, at the Barcelo Mussanah Resort on Friday.
In the ILCA 7 class, the host nation sailors occupy the top three spots. Husain Al Jabri leads after the first race with Abdulmalik Al Hinai in second and Ali Al Saadi in third. Muhanned Al Shikili is fifth.
Oman sailors also grabbed five of the top seven spots in ILCA 6 class with UAE’s Othman Al Hammadi in leading position. Four Omanis were close behind with Hatem Al Araimi in second, Elyas Al Fadhali (third), Al Moatsem Al Farsi (fourth) and Al Salim Al Hamdani in fifth place. Meshari Al Hadhrami finished in seventh.
The opening day witnessed 104 sailors from eight countries compete in the Optimist, ILCA 4, ILCA 6, ILCA 7 and para inclusive RS Venture Connect sailors.
The Optimist sailors managed one race on the first day, which was won by Khalifa Al Romaithi of the UAE, ahead of Shreya Krishna Lakshminarayanan from India and Abdulla Yahya of UAE.
Oman’s Khamis Al Mashakhi finished seventh, just ahead of Hassan Al Wahaibi in eighth, Firas Al Nabhani in ninth and Tamim Al Balushi in 11th spot.
Only one race was staged in the ILCA 4 as well, and it was dominated by the sailors from India. Shashank Batham led ahead of Eklavya Batham in second and Somya Singh Patel in third. Teammate Akshat Kumar Dohare is fifth. Oman’s Abdulatif Al Qasmi is fourth and Firas Al Hashmi ended the day in seventh.
Four Omani para inclusive sailors showed that sailing is a sport for all with a valiant display in the RS Venture Connect competition. The crew of Zahir Al Atbi and Ahmed Al Shikili led from Sultan Al Wahabi and Adil Al Siyabi in second, Sami Al Sulaymi and Hassan Al Lawati in third, and Ghaliya Al Jabri and Malik Al Qartobi in fourth.
Al Atbi said: “It is great to see that para inclusive sailing is part of Mussanah Race Week again this year. Sailing is a wonderful experience for everyone, giving a sense of freedom on the water, and a chance to race as equals. Everyone sailing this week will benefit from increased confidence and experience, as well as the happiness that being part of such a large event brings.”
Racing continues till October 7
Oman Sail also took the opportunity to reaffirm its commitment to the community and environment with a beach clean-up operation at Al Mussanah Public Beach and two days of Try Sailing sessions.
A team of 109 people from Oman Sail and Barceló Mussanah Resort, and sailors from Thailand, Kuwait and India, joined hands to remove 49 bags of beach trash – mostly plastic bottles and discarded fishing equipment.
