| Oman’s sailing duo pulls out of F18 Championships |
CALIFORNIA Oman’s star F18 helmsman Musab Al Hadi, who made headlines this week after he and his crew Ahmed Al Balushi won the opening race of the F18 World Championships, has been forced to withdraw from the event because of a hand injury, a press release said on Friday.
Al Hadi was injured when his trapeze line failed in the second race of the event at a time when the Omani team was leading the fleet to the windward mark.
The team were leading among a huge fleet of 118 entries from 13 countries of numerous Olympic medallists and world championship title holders when disaster struck.
While he was being treated in hospital, Al Balushi was quick to find a substitute helmsman and was heading out onto the race course for the start of Race 3. But it wasn’t going to be a good day for the Omani’s all round when they collided with another yacht before the start and snapped their spinnaker pole. Once again they were forced to retire.
“As a team we’ve considered all our options and we have fully withdrawn from this year’s Worlds due to Al Hadi’s injury,” said Wakelin, Oman Sail’s national catamaran coach.
It was a tough call for the highly driven and extremely committed two-man team, who together with their Oman Sail coach Paul Wakelin, had nevertheless enjoyed a fantastic reward for their relentless 18 month build up to the Worlds by pulling off a magnificent opening race win against the world’s best 118 teams in their first ever World Championship, hosted by Alamitos Bay Yacht Club off Long Beach, California. The team will depart for Oman early on October 17 and arrive on October 19.
Helmsman Al Hadi, who comes from ‘Sidab’ on the coast of Muscat only started sailing four years ago with Oman Sail in the Laser class while his crew 22 year old Ahmed Al Balushi, from the city of Sohar in the Al Batinah Governorate joined Oman Sail as recently as June last year.
Their debut World’s win was one of Oman’s proudest sporting moments and with one victory in the bag the Omani team were fearless in the second race of the day.
The talented young catamaran team has officially withdrawn from this year’s 2012 Global Tech F18 World Championships but their announcement comes with a declaration that they are already in training for next year’s Worlds.
“We start our training for the 2013 Worlds today!,” declared helmsman Al Hadi who will be back in the gym despite the serious hand injury he suffered earlier this week which ultimately forced their decision to withdraw.
“We have all appreciated the help given to us and so we have been able to do our best to give Oman and the Oman Sail project these proud sporting achievements,” said Al Hadi.
Oman Tribune
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