3 sailors advance to Malaysia Challenge
By Lukman Natanagara
LANGKAWI, Malaysia (JP): Philippe Presti of France, Tarmov Maxim of Russia and Hamdan Yahya of Malaysia secured their places in the Malaysia Challenge sailing championships during qualifying on Sunday.
Presti defeated Maxim over three races, while Yahya, who received a wild card for the qualifying round, crushed compatriot Ariffin Abdul Aziz in a duel race.
Presti finished qualifying in first place by collecting a total of seven points on Saturday and Sunday. He was followed by Maxim and Yahya, while Aziz failed to collect any points in the two-day qualifying round and will be left out of the main competition.
"I won the race because my crew was aggressive. Certainly, I am happy with the victory and I will try to win the other races. We are using the Malaysia Challenge as practice for the 2000 Sydney Olympics," Presti said, adding his thanks to crewmen Jean- Marie Davries, Frank Municc and Pascal Rambeau.
Including the three qualifiers, the Malaysia Challenge, which will run from Monday to Friday, will feature 10 skippers.
The seven skippers who did not have to go through the qualifying round for the main competition are Stern Mohr of Denmark; Magnus Holmberg of Sweden; Markus Wieser of Germany; Tomislav Basic of Croatia; Andy Beadsworth of England; Sebastien Destremau of Australia; and Roy Heiner of the Netherlands.
The 10 skippers are vying for a total cash prize of US$75,000. The winner will receive $17,440, with $10,439 going to the skipper who finishes second and $8,709 for third place. The remaining seven will receive $7,650, $6,957, $6,096, $5,227, $4,176, $3,478 and $2,796, respectively.
The Malaysia Challenge will see the 10 skippers competing in duel races until Wednesday.
Each boat has one skipper and four crewmembers. The event organizer has provided the 25-foot Bruce Farr designed boats being sailed by the competitors.
Competing boats must cross the finish line in no more than 25 minutes. Ten umpires will escort racers to watch for any contact between the boats, with penalties given to the boat which initiates the contact. Skippers may not protest the umpires' decision.
Any boat which is assessed three penalties during the five-day competition will automatically be disqualified.
The four crews which collect the most points in the first three days of racing will move on to the semifinals on Thursday. Two of these boats will then qualify for the final on Friday.
Championship director Henri Van der Aat said the organizers decided to skip the quarterfinal round to give skippers who failed to qualify for the semifinals the chance to secure fifth to 10th place in the overall standings.
He also said the results of the Malaysia Challenge would count toward the world rankings.
"Top skippers are expected to improve their world rankings as listed by the International Sailing Federation, which always updates the rankings after each competition," he said.