Inexperience sees Nuraisyah-Juni continue to struggle in Tokyo
TOKYO, July 30 -- A lack of experience is what separates national sailors Nuraisyah Jamil and Juni Karimah Noor Jamali from the world’s best on the third day of the women’s International 470 event at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics today.
After struggling to find their rhythm in the first four races, the Malaysian pair began Race Five and Race Six at the Enoshima Yacht Harbour here in fine form by staying with the leading pack at the first mark.
However, other pairs began to overtake them as they headed towards the second mark before having to be contented with finishing 20th in both races.
“The more experienced sailors began to overtake them (Nuraisyah-Juni Karimah) until the end of both races. The results are quite disappointing, especially after they were in the leading pack at the first mark,” said national coach Muhammad Sahir A Rahim when contacted by Bernama.
After six races, Nuraisyah-Juni Karimah have 91 net points to be placed 20th out of 21 sailors, with two more race days to go.
“Tomorrow (Saturday, July 31) is a rest day before action resumes Sunday. This gives us a chance to analyse their tracking from today’s races and prepare for the coming days,” said Muhammad Sahir.
Polish pair Agnieszka Skrzypulec-Jolanta Ogar lead the standings after six races with 10 net points, followed by Great Britain’s Hannah Mills-Eilidh McIntyre (14 pts) and France’s Camille Lecointre-Aloise Retornaz (17 pts).
Meanwhile, Nur Shazrin Mohamad Latif can breathe a sigh of relief after improving on her achievement in the women’s Laser Radial event in her second Olympic appearance.
In today’s final day of action, Nur Shazrin ended Race Nine and Race 10 in 16th and 15th places respectively to finish 26th out of 44 participants with194 net points.
This is an improvement on her 33rd placing, with 274 net points, when she made her Olympic debut at the 2016 Rio edition.
Nur Shazrin’s coach, Mohd Hafizi Roslee, described her achievement in Tokyo as “commendable” since she only competed in two overseas tournaments in the last two months before leaving for Tokyo.
“Overall, I am satisfied with what we have achieved, taking into consideration the preparation we made. The only thing is that we did not meet our target of a top-20 finish, but we did manage to finish among the top three Asian countries behind China and Japan.
“So, there is still a lot to work on in preparation for next year’s Asian Games and we need more exposure in terms of sailing under wind speeds of up to 15-20 knots, besides gaining more tournament experience,” he said.
In the men’s Laser Standard event, national sailor Khairulnizam Mohd Afendy ended Race Nine and Race 10 in 23rd and 20th positions respectively to finish 28th overall out of 35 participants with 196 net points.
After 10 races, Australian Matt Wearn topped the standings with 49 net points, followed by Canadian Hermann Tomasgaard (71 pts) and Croatian Tonci Stipanovic (74 pts) to march into the medal round with the other seven best sailors.
-- BERNAMA
