Inaugural Qatar Optimist Cup at Doha - Team Racing Day
by Icarus Sailing Media 30 Dec 2013 21:04 GMT
27 December 2013 - 2 January 2014
Turkish Team dominates
Team racing was scheduled for day 3 of the inaugural Qatar Optimist Cup in Doha. After tuning and preparing their boats, the sailors went to the skippers briefing to establish that 6 teams would be racing for podium glory. Since not every country had the required number of athletes to form a national team, the organisers created some mixed teams to be able to compete – a real test for their communication skills.
Team racing requires coordination and clever tactics to advance your group to the next round.
For team 5 and team 6, made up of sailors from Qatar, the UAE and Algeria, this kind of racing was new and challenging. Abdullah Al Raeesi from the UAE and Ganim Al Sewaidi from Qatar fought hard with their team mates, but they went home early, having gained valuable experience.
4 strong teams qualified for the semi-finals and the battle to reach the final was intense.
Rasim Yasar from Turkey led from the front to try to get his team through. Algerian Zakari Mokhtari from Team 3 did everything he could to stop Yasar right up to the finish line, but Team 4 from Turkey went through.
The team from Algeria had to face Team 2 in the petite final to decide 3rd place overall. The two stand out athletes were Marsha Shahrin from Singapore for team 2 and Mohammed Kebaili from Algeria for team 3. Right from the start line they clashed around the course, but the Algerians showed better unity and performance to snatch the bronze medal at the very end.
The grand Final was between Teams 1 & 4. The strong Turks against a European mixed team from Switzerland, Britain and Germany. The Turks led from early on and showed their intentions to take the title. Team 1 was trying to fight back and was hoping for some mistakes from the Turks. But team 4 were unstoppable and very well prepared for this race. They followed the instructions from their coach with Rasim Yasar protecting the two young girls on his squad from attack. The 6 knots of wind helped the girls to break free due to their light weight and they managed to finish first and second which gave them a strong advantage as the rest of the sailors battled for the line... And it was enough. Victory to the sailors from Turkey and smiles all round.
The race officers will use tomorrow's lay day to catch up on lost races, so we'll have more action coming soon.
Team Racing Results:
1st - TUR - Rasim Yasar/ Okyanus Arikan/ Can Erturk/ Lara Cindoglu/ Aaron Schlinck
2nd - GBR/GER/SUI - Mathew Hardie, GBR/ Richard C Falke, GER/ Nicolas Rolaz, SUI/ Luca Schaefer, SUI
3rd - ALG - Mohammed Kebaili/ Fares Abdelfettah/ Zakari Hichem Mokhtari/ Nouha El Alia Akil
4th - IND/NED/SIN - Aniketh Rajaram, IND/ Navyn Prabhakar, IND/ Florine Bramervaer, NED/ Marsha Shahrin, SIN
5th - ALG/ UAE - Anis Messaoudene, ALG - Maissa Abdelfettah, ALG - Abdullah Al-Raeesi, UAE - Abdulaziz Al-Raeesi, UAE
6th - QAT - Ghanim Al-Sewaidi/ Kheireddine Bouchema/ Jassim Al-Mohannadi/ Abdurahman Al Nasr /Isra Al Sulaiti
Event's website at www.qatarsailing.org