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IODA World Sailing Championship

Torben Grael presents prizes at the Optimist World Championships.

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IODA WORLD SAILING CHAMPIONSHIP
Club Navale Charitas, Brazil
Niteroi, Brazil

Torben Grael presents prizes at the Optimist World Championships.

Evening of Celebrations

Last night the prize giving celebrations for the optimist sailors here in Niteroi were hosted by Club Navale Charitas and honoured guest, Torben Grael, was there to speak with the sailors and to present prizes.

Torben learnt to sail here in Guanabara Bay and he confirmed that he believed that it was one of the most challenging places to sail of any in the world. The sailors asked what it was like to win a gold medal at the Olympics and what was the first boat that he sailed and Torben answered their questions and spoke with them for some time. The audience was captivated and it was clear that for most of the people in the room he was a true sailing hero.

For Mohamad Faizal Norizan of Malaysia, it was a real honour to receive his trophy for second overall, from this legendary sailor.

The ceremony included the handing over of the IODA flag to the Malaysian team who will be the next hosts of the IODA Worlds in 2010, in Langkawi.

The first three places in each category were:

IODA World Champioship, Beacon Challenge Cup (best placed sailor irrespective of gender)

1st Sinclair Jones, Peru

2nd Mohamad Faizal Norizan, Malaysia

3rd Ignacio Rogala, Argentina

Best placed female sailor

1st Noppakao Poonpat, Thailand

2nd Ewa Szczesna, Poland

3rd Paulina Rothlauf, Germany

IODA Team Racing World Championship, IODA Challenge Cup

1st China

2nd Peru

3rd Singapore

Optimist Nations Cup Miami Herald Trophy (national team with the lowest total points of its top four sailors)

1st Malaysia

2nd Brazil

| Event Website | Results |

Championship Decided

The final race was held in Niteroi today and Sinclair Jones from Peru has become the 2009 Optimist World Champion.

The race committee and sailors waited patiently for wind today and finally the breeze filled in and race 12 began. Completing this race would permit another discard so for many sailors with a poor race finish, completing this race would enable them to drop their worst result.

The sailors were anxious to start, many remaining above the line during the starting sequence resulting in an AP from the race committee. Determined to complete this race, at the next start an 'I' flag was displayed in an attempt to keep the sailors behind the line. This time the fleet got away but many sailors were identified as over the line at the starting signal (OCS), did not go back and start correctly and so were scored 73 points.

The left side of the course was heavily favoured and so the fleet remained quite tightly bunched as they all headed to the left. The other starts got away, all with an 'I' flag and so this championship, sailed at a venue with some of the most challenging of wind conditions, was over. The leader going into today, Mohamad Faizal Norizan of Malaysia had a disappointing race and was not able to improve his series score but Sinclair Jones, in second place, sailed an excellent race, finished 9th and became the overall winner by eight points.

Congratulations to Sinclair and all of the 211 sailors from 47 countries who have made this championship so memorable. The Club Navale Charitas and their many volunteers have done a fantastic job in making this event so successful, thank you. Everyone has been made to feel welcome and I am sure that they will all have incredible memories of their time in Brazil.

Penultimate Day

Niteroi delivered a perfect day of racing, sun and wind in Guanabara Bay in front of the host Club Navale Charitas. The racing so far has been dominated by sailors from Asia, there are five placed in the top ten. Malaysia has been the strongest and most consistent nation with an incredible three sailors in the top seven. This bodes well for them when the IODA Worlds 2010 are on their home waters in Langkawi.


Action at the pin end - Pink and Blue Group start race 10

There are now eleven races completed with just three more possible tomorrow.  After 12 races there will be another discard which still leaves the medal places uncertain.  Mohamad Faizal Norizan of Malaysia is back in the lead but he will have to work hard to remain ahead of his nearest rivals.

 

Pos.

Sailnumber

Skipper

Gender

Group

Total

Total with
one Discard

1

MAS 85

MOHAMAD FAIZAL NORIZAN

M

GREEN

59.00

46.00

2

PER 272

SINCLAIR JONES

M

PINK

77.00

50.00

3

THA 112

NOPPAKAO POONPAT

F

GREEN

78.00

55.00

4

ARG 3118

IGNACIO ROGALA

M

RED

103.00

66.00

5

FRA 74

ANTOINE LEFORT

M

BLUE

113.00

81.00

6

MAS 86

MUHAMMAD FARHAN HAMID

M

BLUE

99.00

82.00

7

MAS 88

AHMAD LATIF KHAN ALI SUBRI KHAN

M

WHITE

121.00

89.00

8

ESP 1161

CARLOS ROBLES

M

GREEN

126.00

95.00

9

BRA 3477

RICARDO PARANHOS

M

WHITE

136.00

98.00

10

SIN 11

ANDREW EM HAN TANG

M

WHITE

186.00

113.00

 

Fleet Racing 12th Aug

Noppakao Poonpat THA 112

The fleet racing commenced again today after the 3 days of team racing. Three races were planned, 6, 7 & 8 and although once again the wind was light, they were completed.

After six races, sailors may discard their worst result and so at the end of today Noppakao Poonpat (Thailand) was not only first girl but first overall. She has a two point lead over the next three sailors who are all tied on 28 points, Ahmad Latif Khan Ali Subri Khan, Mohamad Faizal Norizan both from Malaysia and Ignacio Rogala of Argentina.

There are 15 races scheduled and racing will continue tomorrow.

 

 

 

 

Team Racing - Day 3

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Niteroi has given us a variety of weather conditions, light and strong winds, sunshine and today, rain. The 12 remaining teams, Malaysia, China, Argentina, Thailand, Singapore, Turkey, USA, Peru, Poland, Slovenia, Brasil and Greece left the shore earlier for what was to be the final day of the IODA Challenge Cup, the IODA World Team Racing Championship.

The favourites were Malaysia who had remained impressive throughout the championship both in the team and the fleet racing. Today however they lost to China and then Poland and these two losses saw them exit the competition.

Finally there were just 5 teams left. Peru, by now the favourites had advanced to the final but their opponents could be one of 4 teams, Singapore, Poland, China or Greece. These races were some of the most fiercely contested and were challenging for both the competitors and the umpires. Optimist team racing has become more popular in the last couple of years and the standard of the racing here was probably the highest that we have ever seen. All of these teams can be proud of how far they have come in this competition.

Peru’s opponents would now be either Singapore, finalists last year, or China. The race was close, with China finally victorious.

The final was to be the first team to win two races. Both teams had excelled in the light and often shifty conditions, so this was likely to be a race of tactics as they both had equal boat speed. China though seemed to have saved the best until last and they accelerated away from the Peruvian team to score two consecutive wins.

Congratulations team China, the new IODA World Team Racing Champions.

 

Team Racing - Day 2


Singapore and Argentina have a close race with many appeals to the umpires

Once again the start of racing was delayed but earlier than usual the breeze filled and racing began. Unfortunately after only a couple of races the wind died and the sailors returned to shore.

Finally the breeze returned and we began again, however, after only about an hour on the water the wind increased from 5 knots to more than 30 knots in a little less than 30 seconds. All racing was abandoned and for safety reasons everyone returned to shore. Over 8 hulls sustained damage which will require repairs tomorrow and such is the spirit within the fleet that several teams who have been eliminated from the team racing, will be lending their boats to those that are still competing for the title of World Team Racing Champions tomorrow.

Many non racing teams today took the opportunity to see something of Rio de Janeiro. Corcovado was one of the most popular choices, with its breathtaking view of the city and Sugarloaf Mountain.


The view from Corcovado extends to the racing area in Niteroi (top left corner)

Tomorrow is the lay day but it will be used to complete the team racing.

Team Racing Day 1


Team Denmark gather around their coach boat before their race

The first two day IODA World Team Racing Championships began today. After a three hour delay the 7-8 knot sea breeze arrived and two courses were laid close to the club.

40 teams are competing, providing some challenging calls for the umpires and some remarkably close racing from the sailors often with many changes of places resulting in a tense moment at the finish until the race committee displayed the winning country letters on a board.

The schedule was ambitious but 40 teams have now been reduced to just 16. Malaysia, Peru, Brazil, Thailand, China, USA, Slovenia, Argentina, Singapore, Greece, Poland, Denmark, Turkey, Ecuador, Sweden and Croatia will race again tomorrow to decide who will be the World Champions. Last years winners, Puerto Rico, did not qualify for the team racing so runners up, Singapore, will be hoping to make it gold this year.


Finland and Turkey approach the start line with less than a minute to go


Sweden beat Italy for a place in the final 16

One of the most exciting races of the day was the match between Malaysia and Singapore. All eight boats remained tightly bunched around the entire course with first one team then the other gaining a winning combination. The race was finally won by Malaysia who go into the second day as the top seed.

Sunday, August 9th

Yesterday, again the wind was light resulting in difficult conditions for both the race committee and the sailors. Mohamad Faizal Norizan (Malaysia) however continues to impress and is now eleven points clear of his nearest rival, Antoine Lefort (France) after five races.

Noppakao Poonipat (Thailand) had an excellent day and is now first girl and fourth overall.

Friday, August 7th - After the races

The sailors left the shore before 9am in the hope of starting racing early to make up for no racing yesterday. They were rewarded with a steady 7-9 knot breeze and the first race of the championship was completed. The 211 sailors have been divided into 6 divisions to making starting them much easier and each race start is for two divisions which rotate for every race.

Race two proved extremely difficult for both the sailors and the race committee as the wind became very shifty and decreased. After a delay to wait for the wind to settle, race three was also completed. It begins to get dark quite early here as it is winter in Brasil and it is an added challenge for the race committee to complete the days racing before 5pm.

As can be expected on a day when the winds are extremely shifty, the results for many sailors were quite inconsistent. Mohamad Faizal Norizan from Malaysia however, was an exception to this with wins in both races one and two and a fifth in race three. He is seven points ahead of his fellow countryman, Ahmad Syukri Abdul Aziz, Mathias Robertson (Chile) and Antoine Lefort (France).

Racing will start tomorrow at 12 noon.

| Results |

Friday, August 7th

There was no racing yesterday due to the lack of wind. The race committee are intending to start earlier today in the hope that they can run 3 races.

Opening Ceremony

Brasil has been the centre of many major sailing championships this year and the last but not least is the International Optimist Class World Championship. Hosted by Club Navale Charitas with racing in Guanabara Bay, Niteroi , this event will see 211 sailors from 47 countries, compete for both the Optimist Individual World Championship and the Optimist Team Racing World Championship for 2009.

Yesterday measurement was completed and after a practice race in the afternoon, a colourful opening ceremony was held in the vast grounds of Club Navale Charitas, the teams parading behind a brass band to the applause of the many spectators.

Today will see the first of a maximum of 15 races.

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