Heiner wins Malaysia Challenge by default

by Lukman Natanagara

LANGKAWI, Malaysia (JP): Heavy rain prevented the final round of the Malaysia Challenge sailing championship, leading the organizing committee to award the event to Roy Heiner of the Netherlands, ranked 43rd, who upset the world number two in the semifinals.

"It is impossible to stage the final round in these weather conditions. The organizers have decided that Heiner wins the finals and Magnus Holmberg of Sweden is the runner-up," said the organizing committee's Marjon Koolstra.

Koolstra said the organizers decided in a meeting held earlier that all races must finish as scheduled despite the heavy rain.

"If the weather was good today, it would be a totally different story because we would know who actually won the finals," she said.

The winner was not selected according to the total number of points amassed during the five-day event.

Andy Beadsworth of England was leading the point tally on Thursday with 29.5 points.

Heiner trailed in second place with 26.5 points, followed by Mohr in third place with 19 points and Holmberg fourth with 18 points.

Tomislav Basic of Croatia and Markus Weiser of Germany shared fifth place with both earning 17 points. Philippe Presti of France was in seventh place with 16 points, while Sebastien Destreneau of Australia was eighth with 13 points.

Taranov Maxim of Russia and Hamdan Yahya of Malaysia were excluded from the semifinals and earned six and three points respectively.

Ranked 43rd in the world, Heiner upset world number two Sten Mohr of Denmark 3-1 in the delayed semifinals early on Friday. With the victory, Heiner bagged the top prize of US$17,400 from a total cash prize of $75,000.

Holmberg, world number four, reached the finals after defeating world number 17 Andy Beadsworth of England 3-0 also in the delayed semifinals. Holmberg received $10,439 while Mohr, who was named second runner-up, pocketed $8,709.

The Malaysia Challenge -- sponsored by state-owned oil company Petronas, the Business Focus Group and Malaysia Airlines -- is likely to be staged in November 2001 in the same area.

"We are likely to stage the event in November 2001, but we will have to see the weather condition. We hope the next event will be better than this year's and that the organizers won't have to delay the race," a member of the organizers, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Jakarta Post.