Laser Men’s World Sailing Championships open in Oman

by Daphne Morgan Barnicoat on 17 Nov 2013 The 2013 Laser Men's World Sailing Championships were welcomed, along with the world's sailing community, to Oman on Saturday with a lavish opening ceremony to mark the start of the class's first ever sailing world championships at Mussanah Sports City.

The ceremony was attended by His Excellency Sayyid Bader bin Hamad Al Busaidi, Secretary General of Ministry of Foreign Affairs, plus other dignitaries and VIPs and around 130 competitors who have flown on from around the world, representing 51 nations.

They were ushered in by young Oman Sail Youth Programme sailors bearing large national flags and by a band of Omani drummers before His Excellency Rashad Al Hinai, Undersecretary of Ministry of Sports Affairs officially welcomed the 300 guests to the venue, which was designed and built specifically to host world class Olympic standard sailing events.

'With the cooperation of Oman Sail, the Ministry of Sports Affairs has exerted great efforts to obtain approval for the hosting the 2013 Laser Men’s World Sailing Championships and also the ISAF youth championships in 2016,' His Excellency said:

'All this falls in the framework of the Sultanate’s belief that these international competitions will play an important role in contributing to human development in Oman, promoting the country as a high- end tourist and investment destination, attracting sports enthusiasts to the country, and enhancing the Sultanate’s position as a country that has the state of the art facilities that can support international sailing events.'

Hugh Leicester, Vice President of the International Laser Class Association added: 'The Laser class is very happy to be here in Oman for the 2013 Laser World Championships.

'We are honoured to be the first sailing World Championship to be celebrated in Oman and look forward to a great week of challenging sailing supplied by the 130 sailors from 51 Countries and all six continents.

'In a short time Oman Sail has become a worldwide brand. Its achievement in developing sailing in Oman has been incredible.'

Throughout the hour long ceremony, the accent was firmly on youth with members of the Oman Sail Youth Programme carrying the three trophies that will be awarded to the winners of the Laser Standard World Championships, the Laser World Masters and the Laser Radial Youth World regattas between now and January.

The importance of the youth programme was given top billing since inspiring and developing Omani youth has become a key part of Oman Sail’s plan to create a sailing legacy in Oman. Young sailors made special gifts to the guests of honour amid a vibrant spectacle of flashing lights and exuberant music.

'Seeing Oman play such a big part in the launch of these World Championships made me feel very proud,' said Omani sailor Ahmed Al Hasani, who will be on the start line on Sunday when the first race of the Championships gets underway.

'There are many of us who have been inspired by the development of sailing in the Sultanate and have been lucky enough to be involved so this is an opportunity for the rest of the world to see what is happening and even perhaps what lies ahead.'

Already the Mussanah Sports City venue has been highly praised by competitors, many of whom have been on site for a fortnight in preparation for the World Championships.

'This is a very good technical race area,' said eight time Laser World Champion Robert Scheidt who after a nine year break has returned to racing in the Laser class in preparation for the Olympic Games in his home city of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.

'There are mostly light to medium winds and the shifts phase in every five minutes from left and right so there is no favoured side to the course and you have to start always in a positive frame of mind. It is crucial to get off the line in clear air. Even if you are the best sailor in the world, you have to get clear air at the start and give yourself options or you will soon be in trouble.'

Racing in the Laser Standard World Championships begins at 1300hrs GST (Gulf Standard Time) on Sunday November 17 with two race starts of 60 boats each. Two back to back races are scheduled each day until the final on Saturday November Event website

Entry List

	Sailor	Sail#	Country
1	Manuel Lelo	ANGANG1	ANG
2	Julio Alsogaray	ARG200514	ARG
3	Ashley Brunning	AUS199014	AUS
4	Tom Burton	AUS199012	AUS
5	Luke Elliott	AUS203004	AUS
6	Mitchell Kennedy	AUS203759	AUS
7	Jeremy OConnell	AUS202863	AUS
8	Ryan Palk	AUS203771	AUS
9	Matthew Wearn	AUS203770	AUS
10	Jared West	AUS203758	AUS
11	Wannes Van Laer	BEL202016	BEL
12	Matheus Dellagnelo	BRA123456	BRA
13	Bruno Fontes	BRA123456	BRA
14	Robert Scheidt	BRA176622	BRA
15	Abdulrahim Abdulla	BRN191122	BRN
16	Abdulla Janahi	BRN197151	BRN
17	Robert Davis	CAN200610	CAN
18	Alexander Heinzemann	CAN197160	CAN
19	Evert Mclaughlin	CAN203633	CAN
20	Lee Parkhill	CAN197120	CAN
21	Tom Ramshaw	CAN197561	CAN
22	David Wright	CAN199330	CAN
23	Matias Del Solar	CHI161167	CHI
24	Filip JuriŠiC	CRO197294	CRO
25	Daniel Mihelic	CRO202974	CRO
26	Tonci Stipanovic	CRO204731	CRO
27	Pavlos Kontides	CYP203598	CYP
28	Viktor Teplý	CZE169433	CZE
29	Martin Trcka	CZE192589	CZE
30	Thorbjoern Schierup	DEN192676	DEN
31	Stig Steinfurth	DEN201408	DEN
32	Guillermo Flaquer	DOM196128	DOM
33	Mohammad Al-shatouri	EGY197075	EGY
34	Ahmed Ragab	EGY199565	EGY
35	Joaquin Blanco Albalat	ESP197295	ESP
36	Rogel Jesus	ESP204673	ESP
37	Kaarel Kruusmägi	EST192655	EST
38	Karl-martin Rammo	EST203724	EST
39	Mattias Lindfors	FIN198227	FIN
40	Kaarle Tapper	FIN202978	FIN
41	Jean-baptiste Bernaz	FRA196700	FRA
42	Jules Ferrer	FRA201776	FRA
43	Eliot Merceron	FRA203697	FRA
44	Antony Munos	FRA200239	FRA
45	Lorenzo Brando Chiavarini	GBR202453	GBR
46	Ben Cornish	GBR204887	GBR
47	Martin Evans	GBR205648	GBR
48	Elliot Hanson	GBR201404	GBR
49	Alex Mills-barton	GBR203084	GBR
50	Matt Reid	GBR204005	GBR
51	Nick Thompson	GBR201402	GBR
52	Jack Wetherell	GBR201481	GBR
53	Philipp Buhl	GER203170	GER
54	Nils Herrmann	GER200080	GER
55	Hannes Hollaender	GER204697	GER
56	Tobias Schadewaldt	GER203739	GER
57	Juan Maegli	GUA123456	GUA
58	Jasvir Singh	IND202241	IND
59	Gajender Singh	IND202240	IND
60	James Espey	IRL192703	IRL
61	Colin Leonard	IRL204159	IRL
62	Ahmad Ahmadi	IRN194819	IRN
63	Cy Thompson	ISV204048	ISV
64	Michele Benamati	ITA204313	ITA
65	Marco Benini	ITA204305	ITA
66	Giovanni Coccoluto	ITA204701	ITA
67	Marco Gallo	ITA196685	ITA
68	Francesco Marrai	ITA205243	ITA
69	Alessio Spadoni	ITA205247	ITA
70	KAZUAKI AWANO	JPN199069	JPN
71	Kenji Nanri	JPN196466	JPN
72	Kazumasa Segawa	JPN165809	JPN
73	Masaaki Taniguchi	JPN199070	JPN
74	Shinnosuke Yasuda	JPN187427	JPN
75	Vladimir Chshankin	KAZ186740	KAZ
76	Ruslan Jangazov	KAZ200030	KAZ
77	Jeemin Ha	KOR204908	KOR
78	Hyunsoo Yoon	KOR203808	KOR
79	Karolis Janulionis	LTU202989	LTU
80	Martis Pajarskas	LTU202773	LTU
81	Khairulnizam Mohd Afendy	MAS196120	MAS
82	Alexandr Denisiuc	MDA197700	MDA
83	Milivoj Dukic	MNE199826	MNE
84	Igor Les	MNE203345	MNE
85	Douwe Broekens	NED204270	NED
86	Nicholas Heiner	NED204566	NED
87	Yuri Hummel	NED204272	NED
88	Rutger Schaardenburg	NED204567	NED
89	Kristian Ruth	NOR204758	NOR
90	Michael Cate	NZL196406	NZL
91	George Lane	NZL192612	NZL
92	Andrew Maloney	NZL203776	NZL
93	Sam Meech	NZL196871	NZL
94	Thomas Saunders	NZL202679	NZL
95	Hussain Al Jabri	OMA199765	OMA
96	Ahmed Albalushi	OMA199632	OMA
97	Ahmed Alhasani	OMA199642	OMA
98	Stefano Peschiera	PER199998	PER
99	Aleksander Arian	POL196962	POL
100	Jonasz Stelmaszyk	POL202671	POL
101	Kacper Zieminski	POL196898	POL
102	Gustavo Lima	POR202210	POR
103	Rui Silveira	POR203371	POR
104	Waleed Al-sharshani	QAT184911	QAT
105	Sergey Komissarov	RUS202692	RUS
106	Maxim Nikolaev	RUS171513	RUS
107	Colin Cheng	SIN201153	SIN
108	Scott Sydney	SIN199258	SIN
109	Nik Pletikos	SLO199698	SLO
110	Zan Luka Zelko	SLO191141	SLO
111	Guillaume Girod	SUI199025	SUI
112	Janik Roempp	SUI200895	SUI
113	Emil Cedergardh	SWE204437	SWE
114	Jesper Stålheim	SWE204666	SWE
115	Andrew Lewis	TRI184116	TRI
116	Youssef Akrout	TUNTUN 1	TUN
117	Onur Bilgen	TUR157311	TUR
118	Utku Gönener	TUR172552	TUR
119	Güneycan Kaptan	TUR111905	TUR
120	Valeriy Kudryashov	UKR171268	UKR
121	Georgii Paches	UKR204532	UKR
122	Chris Barnard	USA194180	USA
123	Erik Bowers	USA203751	USA
124	Charlie Buckingham	USA182345	USA
125	Clayton Johnson	USA204841	USA
126	Luke Muller	USA191997	USA
127	Frederick Vranizan	USA197265	USA
128	Marek Zaleski	USA180521	USA