Muscat – A five-strong team of female sailors from Oman Sail will head to Bahrain for the 1st Arab Women’s Sailing Championship in Bahrain, which starts on Tuesday.

Omani sailors will line up alongside competitors from Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Kuwait, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates at a new landmark for women’s sailing in Optimist, ILCA 4 and ILCA 6 sailing.

The Oman team at the five-day event comprises Marwa Salim al Khaifi (ILCA), Ibtisam Salim al Salmi (ILCA), Hadeel Yousuf al Mushaifri (Optimist), Tarteel Zaid al Hasani (Optimist) and Abeer Khalil al Zakwani (Optimist).

Sultan AbdulAziz al Zadjali will lead the team coached by Hussain Said al Jabri.

The team has been selected based on previous performance at ranking races and progress throughout the season.

All members of the squad represented Oman at the recent Mussanah Race Week 2024 where Ibtisam finished third in the ILCA 6 Girls competition.

Sultan AbdulAziz al Zadjali, Team Leader, said: “This is a great opportunity for our talented female sailors to gauge their development against their peers from across the region. We are very proud of our women’s sailing program, and to be able to compete at such a high level is a great honour and very exciting for women’s sailing in Oman and the sport in Asia. We have been preparing well and hope that this experience is beneficial for our race performance and overall growth of the team.”

Racing will begin on Thursday after a practice day for all classes on Tuesday and a practice race on Wednesday. All three competing classes will then race each day with the final races being held on Saturday.

The championship is organised by the Bahrain Maritime Sports Association in collaboration with the Arab Sailing Federation.