Sailing away to new horizons

A new wave of liberated disabled athletes, who could be potential Asian Games winners in the future, will emerge over the next three years as Oman Sail’s brand new initiative of ‘Sail Free’ gets under way.

The Middle East region’s first ever three-year para sailing programme will help athletes with disabilities to find their feet and broaden their horizons through the platform of sailing.

In an exclusive interview with Oman Daily Observer, Khamis Mohammed al Anbouri, Head of Zimam, the Oman Sail initiative that will oversee the ‘Sail Free’ programme, spoke in detail about the various aspects of the programme.

“It’s a three-year para sailing programme for disabled people. It’s a leadership course in which we will have 105 disabled people. Through this course, we will select 30 people and we will teach these selected people the Level-I and Level-II of sailing. And after we put them through this process of Level-I and Level-II, we will bring the group down to 20 for Level III. In Level III, we will focus on the overall training programme with focus on fitness as well so they are in a position to compete internationally and locally as well.’’

Khamis shared his perspective on the programme’s significance for Oman and the region considering the uniqueness of the initiative.

“The sport has been there for some time, but it has not been so organised in the Middle East before. It is the first time in Oman that we will have a focused approach and there will be two locations where all the facilities will be set up, Al Mouj in Muscat and in Sur. The facilities will be designed and set for disabled people and also designed to help and allow disabled people to sail and be safe on the water.”

Khamis revealed his great expectation and target from the initiative.

“The expectation is to compete at the Asian Paralympic Games and that is our aim and hopefully win some medals in the future as well. There is a lot of competitors from around the world but we will follow the same path that Oman Sail has followed with the sailing programme here and emulate that. We are targeting a medal in the future,’’ he added.

Khamis also stated the programme will be open for all.

“Basically, it is open for both men and women and we will count them together. As you know it is called the Sail Free programme and it is open for all. We will encourage the females along with the males and want all of them to compete together and bring your own leadership skills to the water.

The response from the disabled sailors has been overwhelmingly positive and Khamis vouched

for that.

“As you can see around you, the response has been very good and positive. Lot of them have come here. We want them to come and enjoy the programme and see a clean and clear pathway for a period of three years.”

Khamis explained there will be some specialised coaches who will train the disabled para sailors.

“Basically we have started training our sailors and we will continue to train them to be able to coach and support disabled people in their training.

The ‘Sail Free’ programme will be a leadership programme that will instill the values of leadership into the aspiring para sailors.

“It’s a leadership programme that we will break down into three groups of 35 each in the first phase. We will take them away for three days and have a continuous overnight training programme. We will have a leadership programme embedded into it and see whether they fit into our scheme of things. We will have a criteria of selection that they will go through. We will see if they like being in the water and whether they are scared in the water and how comfortable they are etc. Give them an opportunity to go out sailing for an hour or an hour and a half,’’ he added.