Oman’s crack F18 multi-hull team of Musab Al Hadi and Ahmed Al Balushi have pulled off the unthinkable by winning the opening race of the first ever world championship event they have ever competed in.
It is a life time achievement for the two young Omanis who have only been competing as a team for 18 months.
What’s more they were victorious in a huge fleet of 118 entries from 13 countries and five continents – among them Olympic medallists and world championship title holders who have long been their heroes and role models – on Tuesday’s opening day of the 2012 Global Tech F18 World Championships hosted by Alamitos Bay Yacht Club off Long Beach, California.
Racing in tricky slightly misty conditions with light seven to nine knot breezes the Omanis took their first group race honours ahead of the top French team of Olivier Backes, the Netherlands team of Coen de Koning, Swiss Billy Besson and Carolijn Brouwer who has been dominant at championships this year and is leading the event overall after three races.
The ultimate coup was finishing eight places ahead of one of their greatest role models, the 41 year old Australian defending champion Darren Bundock, a two times Olympic multi hull silver medallist and winner of 15 multi hull world championship titles, three in F18’s.
Helmsman Musab Al Hadi, who comes from 'Sidab' on the coast of Muscat only started sailing four years ago with Oman Sail in the Laser class. He immediately started showing promising results and was selected to represent Oman in home waters at the 2nd Asian Beach Games in Muscat where he scored one step behind the podium to place fourth overall – an incredible result for his first major international event.
Soon afterwards he joined the F18 catamaran team with 22 year old Ahmed Al Balushi as his crew. Al Balushi, who comes from the city of Sohar in the Al Batinah Governate only joined Oman Sail in June last year with the most recent group of recruits and was selected to crew with Al Hadi because of his ability to learn fast and fit athleticism.
Together Al Hadi and Al Balushi create a powerful and strong young Omani team. During a fitness test conducted in the Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex Al Balushi scored the fittest sailor among the new recruits and second only to his helmsman Musab Al Hadi who came out tops as the most fit sailor among all Omani sailors in Oman Sail.
The pair have had a highly successful year so far finishing in the top ten in the last three major European championships they have competed in.
With the euphoria of their first World Championship race win on spurring them on, the Omani team looked set to win Race 2 as well but equipment failure and a hand injury sadly put paid to their hopes of posting a triumphant double whammy in the waters off Long Beach, Calilfornia.
“They were leading again n Race 2. But just 200 meters from the windward mark Musab and Ahmed were coming from the right side of the course, five boat lengths in front of Carolijn Bouwer approaching from the left when Musab's trapeze line failed.
“While falling and trying to grab what was remaining he injured his hand,” said Oman Sail national catamaran coach Paul Wakelin who was out on the course following the race.
“They sailed directly to me in my coach boat and I jumped aboard. We officially retired with the committee boat and started to sail ashore. On the way in we were met by a club safety boat who took Musab to the shore to receive immediate first aid administered from the stationed coastguard at the club before being taken to hospital for further treatment.”
Wakelin said that once Al Hadi’s injury was taken care of they tried to work out a way to preserve the first place result already achieved as there was still one more race scheduled for the day. They rapidly repaired the tiller extension and enlisted a local sailor who had also been forced to retire to take Al Hadi’s position.
“Our view was any result was better than no result. Unfortunately Ahmed and Joseph didn’t make the Race 3 start and even more disappointingly managed to have a collision with another boat. The spinnaker pole on our boat was snapped and a crack in the hull was caused to the other boat. No-one was hurt.
“It has been a long day but we have re-grouped and made a plan to repair our damage early tomorrow enabling us to make a decision whether Musab feels up to continue his racing,” said Wakelin.
Despite being sore and bandaged the typically determined Al Hadi’s response to this was: "I'm going to try."
