(MENAFN- Muscat Daily) Oman Sail's only entry at the 2016 Extreme Sailing Series, Oman Air, heads into the final and eighth Act in Sydney with a clear-cut target - to beat Alinghi - to claim the overall championship.
The final Act begins on Thursday and concludes on Sunday.
Led by Morgan Larson, Oman Air currently leads the overall standings with 79 points, just two ahead of Alinghi, after clinching victories in three Acts in Muscat, Cardiff and Hamburg. Larson and his crew also took three runner-up places and finished third in the last Act in Lisbon.
Besides Larson, his crew comprises Pete Greenhalgh, Nasser al Mashari, Ed Smyth and James Wierzbowski.
'This group is not happy with second place. We will be fighting all the way to the end,' Larson said. 'It's been a great season and we are feeling good. We've been challenged by Alinghi in recent events and that put pressure on us, though now the pressure feels like it is off and we are the underdogs. At the end of the day, this is a sail boat race and we know we have what it takes to win a race.'
'We have studied Alinghi and learned a lot and we have also been doing some proper training, which we hadn't really done before as a group,' said Larson. 'We still feel we are getting better and we are hoping that in Sydney we will reach our full potential and have our best event so far.'
As the final event of the year, Sydney has been made a double-points showdown, which means Oman Air will also be looking out for Red Bull lying six points behind and in contention for honours.
For Omani bowman Nasser al Mashari, who like Greenhalgh was a member of the three-time champion team The Wave, Muscat, the key to winning in Sydney is 'faith and teamwork'. 'We are getting more confident, we know we can't be conservative. We just need to find our rhythm and we will do it,' he said.
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