Wednesday 13 / November / 2024
Muscat – A five-strong team of female sailors from Oman Sail will head to Bahrain for the 1st Arab Women’s Sailing Championship in Bahrain, beginning on 12 November and wrapping up on 16 November 2024. The team will join sailors from across the region as they line up alongside athletes from Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Kuwait, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates at a new landmark for women’s sailing in Optimist, ILCA 4 and ILCA 6 sailing.
Representing Oman will be Marwa Salim Al Khaifi (ILCA), Ibtisam Salim Al Salmi (ILCA), Hadeel Yousuf Al Mushaifri (Optimist), Tarteel Zaid Al Hasani (Optimist) and Abeer Khalil Al Zakwani (Optimist). They will be led by Sultan AbdulAziz Al Zadjali and coached by Hussain Said Al Jabri. The team has been selected based on previous performance at ranking races and progress throughout the season.
All members of the squad represented Oman at the recent Mussanah Race Week 2024 where Ibtisam finished third in the ILCA 6 Girls competition.
Sultan AbdulAziz Al Zadjali, Team Leader, said, “This is a great opportunity for our talented female sailors to gauge their development against their peers from across the region. We are very proud of our women’s sailing program, and to be able to compete at such a high level is a great honour and very exciting for women’s sailing in Oman and the sport in Asia. We have been preparing well and hope that this experience is beneficial for our race performance and overall growth of the team.”
Racing will begin on 14 November after a practice day for all classes on Tuesday 12 November and a practice race on Wednesday 13 November. All three competing classes will then race each day with the final races being held on Saturday 16 November where the prize giving and closing ceremonies will also take place.
The 1st Arab Women’s Sailing Championship is organised by the Bahrain Maritime Sports Association in collaboration with the Arab Sailing Federation. For more information, please visit www.bahrainsailing.com.
