(MENAFN- Muscat Daily) Jihad al Hasani guided Al Mouj, Muscat Sailing School to the overall title in the first event of the 2017 Oman Sail Ranking Regatta Series at the Mussanah Sports City on Saturday.
The two-day event brought together 70 youngsters from the four Oman Sail-run sailing schools at Mussanah, Marina Bandar al Rowdha (MBAR), Sur and Al Mouj, Muscat.
With the overall title to be based on the combined scores of the best six sailors of each school, Al Mouj did well to have six of its sailors among the top 13 from a field of 44 in the Optimist class to emerge champion.
One of the participants in the Optimist class competes during the races on Saturday
Mussanah's Al Moatasem al Farsi, who is now a regular in the national team, claimed the individual honours while his teammate Alaa al Omrani clinched the bronze. But it was not enough for the hosts' to win the overall crown. Jihad, who finished runner-up, along with his teammates, had better average scores to edge Mussanah.
Sur was third followed by Marina Bandar al Rowdha.
'The ranking event was a success as we got more number of entries this time. Our aim to attract more and more youngsters as it gives us more options to scout for talented junior sailors,' said Mohsin al Busaidi, the Oman Sail youth programme manager.
'These races will help us select the best seven sailors, whom we plan to take to France ahead of the national team's participation at the Optimist worlds in Thailand in July. We plan to send a five-member team at the worlds,' said Busaidi.
The two-day regatta also featured races in windsurfing and other classes. In the U12 Optimist class, Osama al Zadjali of Al Mouj won the title ahead of Hamad al Ghailani (Sur) and Laith al Wahaibi (MBAR).
MBAR's Marwan al Jabri was the winner in the Laser 4.7 class, winning on countback against Al Mouj's Abdul Malik al Hinai. Adnan al Mabsali (Al Mouj) completed the podium.
In the Techno windsurfing class, sailors from Mussanah dominated as Abdullah al Sarhi (U17), Ali al Sarhi (U15) and Al Mukhtar al Mujaini (Open) won the respective races.
The next event will be the national regatta in Sur from August 18 to 22.
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