Chinese and Thai sailors top Optimist Asian event

Manama , March 4 (BNA) -- Sailors from Thailand and China continued to dominate their respective categories on the third day of the Optimist Asian Championships 2014, being held at the Bahrain Sailing Club’s Al Jazayer Beach in Zallaq. China’s Yu Huijia overcame her main opponent Klaham Miss Kamonchanak of Thailand to top Group ‘A’ with 11 points after three days of races. Klaham, who was leading in the first two days, slipped to second with 21 points. She is being followed by Phua Shynee (24 points) in third place. More than 120 young participants from 21 countries sailed their boats in fleet races in front of the club’s harbour. In the boys section, Yampinid Master Sulton, one of the promising young sailors from Thailand, made it to the top for the first time on the third day with 12 points. He had a tough battle against his countryman Rachrattanaruk Voravong, who went down to third with 14 points, and ahead of Chinese Wang Jie (17 points) who moved up to third. Meanwhile, Bahrain coach Zuhair Al Labat said he was satisfied to see 70 per cent of his sailors have successfully completed their races, taking into consideration their relatively short sailing experience of just three months. Al Labat said this championship has revealed some new sailing talents to the technical team supervising the Bahrain national teams. He said those raw talents will surely have a promising future, once they are involved in programmes to develop their skills. Al Labat added that Bahrain members will resume training after the Asian Championship to prepare for the Arab Games, to be staged in Lebanon in 2015. On his part, Thailand coach M. Sonan said he was pleased with his sailors’ overall performance and remarkable results in their respective categories. Sonan admired the achievements of his most prominent sailor Rachrattanaruk Voravong, a former world optimist champion, and commended his country for winning the Asian Championship for four consecutive editions in 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012. The Thai tactician noted that competition in the optimist class is usually very fierce and the results are so close, especially between East Asian countries such as Hong Kong, China, Japan and Singapore. “Our training programmes continue throughout the year. In Thailand, we have many optimist championships and these races are very popular there,” said Sonan. “That’s why we are always ready to compete at this level and we have a group of solid and distinguished sailors who have gained experience through several domestic races organised in Thailand”. According to Sonan, the Bahrain event represents a crucial step for his nation as they prepare for this year’s Optimist World Championship in Argentina from October 20 to 31. Libya, one of the five teams from outside Asia in the championship, aim to compete with some of the continent’s finest young sailors. Coached by Hashim Al Raoubi, Libya only sent three sailors to Bahrain, all of whom are boys. However, Al Raoubi said his country is preparing to involve girls in sailing sport, adding that a national training workshop will take place this summer and is only open for girls sailors. The Libyan coach said his nation looks at the Bahrain event as an important stage to prepare its members for an international championship in Agadir, in Morocco. EM