Youth sailors applauded as 2019 Optimist Asian and Oceanian Championship concludes in Oman

A highly competitive 2019 Optimist Asian and Oceanian Championship came to an end in Oman on Sunday with a celebratory prize-giving and closing ceremony at Mussanah Sports City.

The hard work and skills of the 146 sailors from 21 countries who had gathered in the Sultanate for the high-profile International Optimist Dinghy Association (IODA) regional event were applauded as trophies were awarded.

Thailand lead the way with Panwa Boonnak the 2019 Optimist Asian and Oceanianchampion. He topped the overall and gold fleet table ahead of his teammate Weka Bhanubandh, with Brazil’s Guilherme Menezes completing the podium. Hong Kong’s Julia Jacobsen was the leading female youth sailor, finishing in 12th place overall, and Australia’s Matty Goss won the Oceanian section after taking eighth place overall.

Six members of the Oman home team finished in the top-25 overall, with Saleem Al Alawithe best placed in seventh while Mohammed Al Qasmi took two race wins on his way to 11th place. A total of 10 of Oman’s 16-strong team qualified to race in the top gold fleet over the last two days of the Oman Sail hosted and organised championship.

Earlier in the event, the Oman squad had also been able to celebrate qualifying for their first-ever Team Racing Championship final, going to head-to-head against Thailand with the Thai team successfully defending their 2018 Asian title to win for the second successive year. Australia was the winner of the Oceanian Team Racing title.

The 2019 Optimist Asian and Oceanian Championship attracted teams to Oman from Australia, China, New Zealand, Turkey, Malaysia, Brazil, Singapore, Finland, Bahrain, Egypt, Hong Kong, India, Iraq, Japan, Macau, Malaysia, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, the UAE and the USA.