Optimist World Championships - Thailand Team Racing winners

by IODA on 4 Jan 2011 IODA 2010 World Championships, Malaysia.

Stage Two of the Team Racing competition began with just 16 teams, reduced from the 43 teams of yesterday. The 16 teams getting through from Stage One were: Norway, Singapore, Italy, Germany, Australia, Spain, Chile, Malaysia, Finland, Argentina, Slovenia, USA, Peru, Croatia, Great Britain, Thailand. This was a geographically diverse group demonstrating the strength of optimist team racing worldwide.

Thailand qualified as the highest seed from Stage One and quickly defeated Great Britain and Peru who had unexpectedly been beaten by Croatia. The race committee struggled initially with shifting winds and drifting marks but eventually the wind settled down to a near perfect 10 knots, in bright sunshine, the rain of the last few days having passed ideal conditions for team racing.

The race committee kept the courses short, roughly 8 minutes in length, which kept the racing tight and highly competitive. Thailand continued their unbeaten run in Stage One and reached the Final without a loss. The match between Singapore and Peru, the winner earning the right to sail against Thailand in the first to win two races Final, was electric. The balance of control kept swinging from one team to the other but eventually it was a win to Singapore. Speaking as an umpire, Peru provided some of the most brilliant tactical manoeuvres of any team and they like all the other teams in the second stage, created many challenges for the umpires and continually demonstrated the high level of team racing tactics and boat handling now required to reach this stage of the competition.

The Final was again very close, but Thailand continued their unbeaten run, winning two races and becoming the 2010 IODA World Team Racing champions. Congratulations to them and all of the other teams who made the last two days so exciting and memorable.

Chris Atkins (Chief Umpire), a veteran official at our European Team Racing Championship but new to the Worlds said: 'It was great to see the optimist class combining fleet racing and team racing at the same championship, more classes should consider this as everyone enjoys the team racing so much.'

The 4th January is a lay day when teams will have the opportunity to travel around the island and discover the delights of the local area. Then it is back to the fleet racing as this championship begins to draw to an end.

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