KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s sailing team, The Monsoon, created a sensation on the global sailing stage by moving into the quarter-finals (1/4) after marching through the 1/8 elimination round at the Group 1 winner of the Star Sailors League (SSL) Gold Cup in Gran Canaria, Spain.
Interestingly, The Monsoon is the only Asian team that will move on in the competition, which is seen as the World Cup of sailing.
What was more amazing was the fact that at the start of the race, The Monsoon was at the tail end of the racing teams before striding through to emerge as the winner of the race, yesterday.
Meanwhile, the skipper of The Monsoon, Megat Danial Megat Najmuddin in a statement said the team’s progress to the quarterfinals was beyond expectation and came as a pleasant surprise but added that the team was aware of the uphill task that awaits at the quarterfinal stage.
“We were able to overcome the initial target of a top 20 spot by surprising everyone, including pulling off an upset over a number of reknown countries in the sailing world and that were ranked high on the list,” said the statement.
The Monsoon together with Team Hungary qualified for the quarterfinals after finishing in first and second places respectively, enroute to disposing world number four ranked team United States and Argentina.
The Monsoon, ranked 58th in the world, and headed by two Olympics bound sailors Khairulnizam Mohd Afendy and Nur Shazrin Mohamad Latif will now compete against three of the top teams in the world of sailing, namely Great Britain (No. 2), France (6th) and Denmark (7) in Group 1 from tomorrow till Dec 1.
NIne others in the team are Ahmad Faizul Aswad Mohamed, Ahmad Hakhimi Ahmad Shukri, Ahmad Khairulhafiz Mohd Khmbali, Mohd Azhar Sadon Zubir, Uzair Amin Mohd Yusof, Mohd Akiyuddin Mat Zaki, Mohd Saifullah Mohd Esa, Mohd Amsyar Syahmi Mohd Ajwi (reserve), Rizal Mahadi Sazili (reserve).–Bernama
