120 sailors from the region took part in the five-day event.
The Arab Sailing Championships came to a close after five days of exceptional racing from the best young sailors in the region in Oman.
In the Optimist competition, UAE’s Mayed Al Ali edged out Oman’s Tamim Al Balushi by four points to take gold, with his teammate Mohammed Al Marzouqi finishing third. 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 picked 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 teammate 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. Teammates Hatim Al Ouraimi finished seventh overall and Alsalim Al Hamdani finished ninth overall.
The Arab Sailing Championships marked the debut of the RS Venture class, a highly versatile dinghy for para sailors, and it was a victory on home waters for the Omani pair of Malik Juma Al Qartoobi and Ghaliya Al Jabri. Leading all week, the team notched up another win to seal victory overall. Sami Al Sulaimi and Naser Al Rahbi of Oman finished second, winning the final race of the day to bring a very impressive campaign to a close. The Saudi crew of Saleh Al Tuwaylie and Turki Al Khawaji finished third after showing great consistency throughout. The team skippered by Ahmed Salman Abdulwahid of Iraq finished fourth.
