10 sailing classes, 12 countries, 89 races, 225 boats, 246 sailors and that’s a wrap for Second ASAF Youth Sailing Cup (2017-18) Series and Hong Kong Race Week 2018.
With 1 knot and gusting to 2 from the west this morning… the decision was made to hoist the AP and hold competitors on shore and see if the breeze improved. As the day went on the sun came out and the breeze increased marginally – but not enough for racing on the main race tracks. There was a little breeze in Deep Water Bay so the Optimist Green fleet were sent for some fun races in front of the Middle Island Clubhouse. Whilst the fun race was in progress the rest of the competitors got into a serious hiking competition on a RS Feva near the dock.
Special guest, Hong Kong’s Commissioner for Sports Yeung Tak-keung arrived to visit the race village shortly before the N over A was raised at 1500hrs and racing was called off for the day.
With the racing abandoned for the day, the results from yesterday stood and in the Optimist fleet Hong Kong’s Duncan Gregor took the win for the second year running. Training has paid off for fellow Hong Konger Douglas Leung who was only 2 points behind – a great improvement to finish second overall compared to his 18th position in the same event last year. Douglas was interviewed today, “This is my fifth Hong Kong Race Week. I have been sailing Optimists for six years now and this is one of my best results. I have earned a lot of experience from overseas events for example the Europeans in Bulgaria and the Top of the Gulf Regatta in Thailand. This has helped me adapt to any wind conditions. I think that going out today would have be very nice because I could see how everyone has progressed over the years. HKRW been good because I can learn from the experience.”
In the Laser 4.7 Class Indonesia’s Roger WARDOJO took the win with 3 firsts and a 7 point cushion between India’s Chitresh TATHA in second place. The first Hong Kong boat is in third position who is Emily WONG who jumped from thirteenth in 2017. Sole Qatar competitor and first time HKRW competitor Abdulrahman AL NASR is in 9th position, Abdulrahman summed up his experience “I wanted to do Hong Kong Race Week because I saw there was some good competition and I knew that coming here would give me more experience in my sailing and upgrading my skills. It was perfect sailing and there weren’t a lot of protests. The weather was perfect actually – but not today! I have come all the way from Qatar and I have made some new friends from India, Indonesia and Hong Kong. I hope to return for Hong Kong Race Week 2019! It’s important to gain more overseas experience to get better and better.”
The final prizegiving was held shortly after the N over A was raised with speeches from Hong Kong Race Week Chairman Peter Davies, Hong Kong Sailing Federation Vice-President and Principle Race Officer Charlie Manzoni. Prizes for the winners were presented by Yeung Tak-keung, Peter Cremers, John Woo and Walder Ip.
See you at Hong Kong Race Week 2019 which will be held from 12 to 19 February!
The official website is at www.hongkongraceweek.com
Provisional results: www.hongkongraceweek.com/results
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