More Gold for Singapore

by Singapore Sailing Federation on 11 Jul 2006 A record 22 countries were represented at the 2006 Optimist North American Championships in Ponce, Puerto Rico, over the last week. In addition to the North American countries, there was a strong contingent of teams from South America, with the addition of a team each from Germany, New Zealand and Singapore.

Amongst the 189 competitors, Singapore’s Sean Lee Teik Ren, 15, dominated the competition from the start and finished the regatta with an almost flawless performance, scoring eight firsts out of 12 races. With a maximum of two discards, he finished the championship with a score of 16 points.

Fellow Singaporean Griselda Khng, 14, finished in 14th position overall and fifth in the Girls’ division. Rachel Lee Qing, 12, younger sister of Sean Lee, finished in 35th overall. Darren Choy, 12, in this major international regatta was in 146th after the completion of ten races (his final result was not available at press time). Sean and Griselda were recently crowned the Singapore National Champions in the Sentosa National Optimist Championships.

In the team racing event, gusty winds at the start of the competition calmed to a light 6 to 7 knots after a rain squall blew through the area just before noon. Sixteen teams participated in the team racing, with Peru emerging victorious, followed by Singapore second and Argentina third.

'Winning the IODA (International Optimist Dinghy Association) South American and North American Championships are good indicators of our intentions to develop the World’s best Oppie sailors. The Oppie is the boat widely used internationally and is a good breeding ground for future Olympians. It’s been a good week for SingaporeSailing having won four world championships in one week and now another continental championship. July’s a busy month with our eight-strong team about to begin racing at the ISAF Youth World Championships in three days’ time,' said Andrew Sanders, Executive Director of Singapore Sailing Federation.

The Optimist sailors’ next challenges will be the IODA Asian Championships in late July, the ASEAN Championships in November, the Asian Games and IODA World Championships in December.