Doha: Oman’s young Laser sailor Hussain Al Jabri left for Qatar’s Sail the Gulf regatta last week with no expectations except to develop and test his skills against an international fleet but returned home yesterday a champion after winning his class.
The young 24-year-old Al Jabri’s victory in the Laser Standard class fleet after four cut throat days of 12 races contested at the Doha Sailing Club from February 20-23 was even more incredible as he was lying third going into the final day of racing.
Quietly confident that he could still better his position, the final day of the event nevertheless proved a seesaw of emotions and results for Al Jabri.
His hopes rocketed when he posted a 2nd place in the first race and soared higher when he pulled off a magnificent bullet in the second, but crashed when he finished a disappointing 7th in the final race of the event.
“I went ashore trying to convince myself that even despite the 7th place I had done my best to hold onto third overall and win bronze for my country,” said Al Jabri who only started sailing 18 months ago.
But what Al Jabri didn’t know at that stage was that his closest rivals and leading two contestants,
Gajender Singh and Dharmender Singh Chauhan from the Indian Army Team, had both retired from the first race of the day after being flagged by the jury with a DNE penalty for pumping in the tricky light seven to eight knot wind conditions. The penalty relegated the Indians, Singh and Chauhan, to second and third overall respectively and left the way open for Al Jabri to leapfrog to the top of the leader board.
“I had been ashore for about an hour and was already de-rigging my boat when I got the news from the jury that I had won! Until then I hadn’t been able to smile but then I just laughed and said: I love sailing! This is a sport where anything can happen,” said Al Jabri.
Qatar’s Sail The Gulf regatta was the first major regatta of the 2013 dinghy sailing season with 220 sailors from 21 countries competing in nine dinghy classes. Al Jabri who was up against sailors from Bahrain, the Czech Republic, Germany, India, Kazakhstan, Myanmar, the Netherlands and Russia consistently posted top results with typically smart tactics and a cool head to keep him in the top three places from the outset.
On day one he shared the lead on equal points with Germany’s Alexander Maxmilian after scoring two seconds and a third in light 5 – 8 knot winds. Day two saw him in second place with a fifth and two thirds despite heavy 24 knot winds and tough conditions. On day three he posted a fourth, third and fifth place to position him third overall going into the final three races on the fourth and final day of the event.
The Qatar championship win comes on the back of Al Jabri’s win at the Singapore Laser Trophy last year.
Rashid Al Kindi, Chairman of the Oman Sailing Committee and National Team Manager was full of praise for Al Jabri: “Hussain is one of the most disciplined sailors in the team, in his training and his fitness abilities. He is passionate about what he does and always aims to improve his performance. This event was a great platform for him to test his performance at an international level. This will help him gain more experience to compete on Asian and international level.
The Peninsula
