A team of six sailors representing Sri Lanka including two from Royal College and four from the Navy will leave the island on Monday, (May 13), to participate in the Fourth Chief of the Air Staff (CAS) International Open Sailing Championship in Karachi, Pakistan from May 14 to 19.
The two boys from Royal College both age 15 and the four Navy sailors make up this year’s team of six after qualifying at selections held by the national sailing body, the Yachting Association of Sri Lanka.
Royal’s Yusef Hazari, the number one ranking sailor three years running in his category in Sri Lanka along with Saditha Gamage will compete in the ILCA 4 Class.
Navy’s U.D Rajapakse and J.S Seneviratne will compete in the ILCA 7 category while Sri Lanka’s top windsurfer KPP Gunawardena and WA Weeratunga will compete in the RS:X (windsurfing). The team will be accompanied by the national ILCA coach Roshil Nisantha.
“Our team consists of some of Sri Lanka’s top-ranking sailors and wind surfers. We have trained hard and we are confident they will perform well in Pakistan,” said Nisantha.
The Championship hosted by the Pakistan Airforce will have a total of 95 sailors from 13 different countries including Malaysia, Kazakhstan,China, Bahrain, Indonesia, Egypt, Thailand, South Korea, UAE, Singapore, Hong Kong, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
“This year’s International Sailing Regatta in Karachi will see fierce competition with sailors from around the world competing for the titles in the 4classes including the ILCA-7, ILCA-4, RS:X and Optimist,” said Wing Commander Mehran Khan, Officer commanding of the PAF (Pakistan Air Force) Yacht Club.
“We are certain this will be an extremely competitive and successful one that will enrich the experience of competing sailors.”
