Credit : Lloyd Images
With just one more day of racing before the winner of the 2010 Extreme Sailing Series is crowned, the young team on The Wave, Muscat are planning to achieve one of Oman Sail’s key milestones; an Omani sailor standing on the podium of a top international sailing event for the first time in the country’s history.
Khamis Al Anbouri, Bowman on The Wave, Muscat is the man who could make history for Oman, it has been quite a journey since joining Oman Sail just two years ago. “We are the youngest team here, and at the start of the season people didn’t expect us to perform as well as we have. But we trained hard, and worked so hard to be here, it has been an exciting journey for me. The final day will be a lot of pressure, but I am so excited. We have a long way to go to win the event, we will have 6 races tomorrow and as always, everything changes! Tonight I will have an early night, relax the mind and body and tomorrow get out there and turn it on!”
The winds were lighter today making the racing less exciting for the hundreds of spectators, but no less intense for the teams on the water. Paul Campbell-James and his team on The Wave, Muscat don’t want to settle for anything other than the top step of the podium. “Tomorrow is not only the final in Almeria, it is the final of the entire Series. The whole year comes down to tomorrow – the boat that wins between us and Groupe Edmond de Rothschild wins the Series. That is serious pressure and we will be pretty nervous tonight and nervous tomorrow morning before racing. We would like to have more of a lead over Groupe Edmond de Rothschild but we are still confident we can beat them – we came into today 11 points behind them and finished on equal points, if we can do that again tomorrow we will be taking the trophy back to Oman.”
David Graham, CEO, Oman Sail is in Almeria to support the teams. “I find it difficult to express in words the achievement of the The Wave, Muscat and especially Khamis. Whatever happens tomorrow Oman Sail and Oman is extremely proud of the team’s achievements.”
Final day of racing in the 2010 Extreme Sailing Series is on Tuesday 12th October when the 2010 Champions will be crowned.
From Oman Sail
