In a recent initiative of the Muscat Asian Beach Games Organising Committee (MABGOC), three sailors from Oman Sail were seen with rubbish bags in hand, helping to clean a beach. Khamis Al Anbouri, most recently crowned European Extreme Sailing Series champion with his team on The Wave, Muscat and Ahmed Al Ma’amari and Abdullah Al Busaidi, who both recently circumnavigated the world in the Clipper Round the World Race were the Oman Sail sailors present.
They joined the many school children and MABGOC officials who scoured the beach for discarded cans, bottles, food packaging and anything else which is irresponsibly dumped in Oman’s beauty spots. Each sailor had traveled from their villages especially to take part in the event with Khamis Al Anbouri bringing his wife and children with him, helping him show the next generation how to maintain the natural beauty of Oman’s thousands of kilometres of coastline.
In honour of their commitment to helping keep the environment clean and helping to tidy it, each of the sailors were recognized by the MABGOC officials and were awarded with Asian Beach Games Ambassador status. The accolade was especially poignant for Khamis as one of the chosen sponsor for the Oman Sail Extreme 40 teams is the Environmental Society of Oman (the other is Dar Al Atta’a).
‘Oman has given me everything I needed to become a professional sailor and represent her at the highest level of international competition. I am honoured to do this little thing in return and hope to make the next generation more aware of their responsibilities to the environment and keep a clean legacy for the future generations,’ Khamis was quoted as saying as he filled another rubbish bag of mixed detritus he had collected.
As well as the groups of school children and MABGOC officials, three sailors were joined by two members of Oman’s national beach football team.
