Sri Lankan Junior Sailing Team ready to make waves at the IODA Championship

Mumbai: A ten-member junior national sailing team is expecting to make waves at the ongoing IODA Asian and Oceanian Sailing championship that is being held in Mumbai, India.The team of school children between the ages of 13 to 15 are racing against the world’s best Optimist sailors, and will launch on their second day of racing on Friday. The championship, held from December 14 to December 20, is one of the biggest Optimist racing events.

Following a gala opening ceremony on December 14, the 10 sailors took to the seas in a fiercely competitive race on Thursday. Due to low winds, the sailors managed to race just two races, instead of the scheduled five.

“We had a disappointing start as the racers struggled with the low winds and high tide during the first race, but they caught up at their second race. I am confident at least three of our sailors will make it to the Gold Fleet today,” said the national sailing coach Krishan Janaka.

The Sri Lankan team picked up speed with the low tides and winds picking up from 6 knots to 8 knots during the second race.National champ and Royal College Optimist Captain Yusef Hazari finished the races with an overall position of 61.

Tharen Nanayakkara of S. Thomas’s College, Mt. Lavinia, reached an overall 66th position.This year’s 101 participants from 14 countries were split randomly into two teams – the Yellow and Blue fleet for the first day of races. The top 25 sailors from both the Blue and Yellow fleets will advance to the Gold fleet, while the second 25 will move on to the Silver fleet.

“I’m feeling quite good confident we’ll get into the gold fleet, and all of us are feeling confident we’ll be racing much better than yesterday,” said Yusef. “We’re determined to get into the team racing too. Sailing is a sport that starts way before the race, it starts in your mind with confidence, optimism, and persuasion, so today’s going to be different,” said Yusef, sponsored by Apurva Garden Teas, who is sailing at an international event for the first time.

The rest of the team echoed his sentiment, determined to win.

“I’m going to do my best, go all out and focus on the race today,” said Tharen, a veteran sailor who participated in the 2019 IODA at Oman. “It’s tough competition, but I’m very confident that we’ll get into the gold fleet and win, because with the right mindset, and the hunger to achieve you can win anything.”