Muscat: Oman Sail has been chosen to host the 2025 IODA Optimist Asian & Oceanian Championship, to be organised in collaboration with the Oman Marine Sports Committee and International Optimist Dinghy Association (IODA). The event is scheduled to take place from October 25 to November 1, at Oman Sail’s Mussanah Sailing School and will welcome sailors from across Asia and Oceania to the Sultanate of Oman for a week of high-level competitive sailing. The Mussanah Sailing School was designated a Category A High Performance Centre by the Asian Sailing Federation (ASAF) earlier this year, signifying the facility’s capability to host international regattas, training and development clinics, and local, regional and national sailing events. The venue has built a long history of hosting impressive sailing events, including the 2021 Youth Sailing World Championship, the 2021 49er, 49erFX and Nacra 17 World Championships, and 13 editions of the annual Mussanah Race Week, amongst others. This will also be the second time Mussanah has hosted the IODA Optimist Asian & Oceanian Championship following the successful staging of the event in 2019, where 141 sailors from 21 nations participated. Dr Khamis bin Salim al Jabri, Oman Sail CEO, said, “It is a great honour for Oman Sail to be chosen to host the 2025 IODA Asian and Oceanian Championships for the second time. Our Mussanah Sailing School has become an important regional hub for sailing, not just for our own teams but also as a world-class competition venue, and its status was recently reinforced by the Asian Sailing Federation with our sailing school being recognised as a Category A High Performance Centre.” He added, “We look forward to welcoming the best Optimist sailors from across both regions to Oman once more, sharing our unique hospitality and culture, and providing a world-class venue in which to make lifelong connections and take the next step in their flourishing sailing careers.” Oman Sail’s Optimist team recently competed in the 2024 edition of the IODA Optimist Asian & Oceanian Championship in Hong Kong, China, where all five of the sailors secured top-half finishes in their fleets. Tamim al Balushi finished 10th overall in the Gold Fleet. Teammate Hasan al Wahaibi also performed very well, finishing in 13th place overall, while Firas al Nabhani and Khamis al Mashaikhi finished 28th and 40th respectively, and Hadeel al Mushaifri finished 41st in the women’s competition Silver Fleet.
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