Muscat : The Arab Sailing Championships came to a close after five days of exceptional racing from the best young sailors in the region in perfect conditions at Barceló Mussanah Resort.
In the Optimist competition, UAE’s Mayed Al Ali edged out Oman’s Tamim al Balushi by four points to take gold, with his team-mate Mohammed al Marzouqi finishing third in a very tight fleet. Karma Walid Mohammed won the women’s category, finishing third overall, ahead of Bahrain’s Malak Al Doseri – fourth overall - and Egyptian Talia Hussein Emad who finished eighth overall in what was a very high-quality fleet of both male and female sailors.
It ended up being a UAE one-two-three with Othman Al Hammadi taking gold despite easing off in the last race. Alharith Al Ali finished second and picks up the silver, ahead of Mohammed Al Zaabi in third. Ganna Mohamed Shaalan of Egypt took the women’s gold, finishing fourth overall, ahead of team-mate Asmaa Wael Mahfouz in second and Ourabah Sofia of Algeria in third. Elyass Al Fadhil was the highest ranked Omani sailor in fifth overall and fourth in the men’s category.
Team-mates Hatim Al Ouraimi finished seventh overall and Alsalim Al Hamdani finished ninth overall.
Almutasim al Farsi from Oman showed a high level of skill and control throughout the week in the ILCA 6 class to hold off the challenge of the chasing pack, taking the gold medal ahead of UAE’s Ahmed Younis in second and his team-mate Zakariya al Wahabi of Oman in third. Khouloud Moustafa Mansy of Egypt won the women’s category, finishing second overall, and comfortably ahead of Dhuha Al Beshr of UAE in second and Mariam Ihab Moustafa of Egypt in third. Nibras al Owaisi of Oman finished tenth overall.
The ILCA 7 event was won by Adil Khalid of UAE who finished five points ahead of Al Alsaadi of Oman, and Abdulmalik al Hanai also from Oman finished third, holding off the challenge of Faris Al Bakri from Qatar in fourth and Egypt’s Aly Nabil Ahmed Badawi in fifth, as just eight points separated third and ninth. Fellow Omani sailor Abraa al Noufli finished eighth.
Conditions were ideal for the windsurfing events and the Omani duo of Abdulmajeed al Hadhrami and Omar al Qartobi continued to dominate the iQFOiL competition. Al Hadhrami took the gold, ten points ahead of his team-mate Al Qartobi, with Mehdi Guembri of Tunisia a further eight points back in third. Oman’s Abdullah al Sarahi finished sixth.
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