Racing conditions provided to be tricky on the penultimate day of the SIM 34th Singapore Open RS:One Asian Windsurfing Championship as participants found themselves competing in light and extremely shifty winds coupled with occasional gusts. This led to a jostle for positions at the top mark but in the end, it boiled down to who was able to read and capitalise on the wind shifts.[more]
Over in the RS:One fleet, Cheng Kwok Fai (HKG-18) looks set to take home the Men’s Asian Champion title with yet another three straight wins. In the Women’s division however, the battle for the Women’s Asian Champion title remains a close fight between China’s Li Xiaoyan (CHN-1) and Hong Kong’s Ngai Wai Yan (HKG-30) with just one point separating them.
In the RS:X fleet, Singapore’s contenders fought hard to secure a podium finish. In the Men’s division, Singapore’s Leonard Ong (SIN-1) took a bullet in race 10 to finish third overall, overtaking multiple Asian Games Gold medallist, Oka Sulaksana (INA-1). With just two points behind second-placed Phattharadanai Chinain (THA-27) and three points behind first-placed Natthaphong Phonnoppharat (THA-6), the final day races would be crucial for Ong. In the Women’s division, Singapore’s Audrey Yong (SIN-11) managed a bullet in Race 9 but this was not enough to displace first-placed Siripon Kaenduangngam (THA-57). In the Youth division, Kensei Ikeda (JPN-174) remains at the top of the leaderboard.
In the Techno 293 fleet, there were no changes to the leaderboard with Dong Zhaoguan (CHN-1) and Chen Yujie (CNH-3) topping the Youth Boy and Youth Girl divisions respectively while Aung Thein Oo (MYA-9) and Yui Tamura (JPN-1711) remained first in the Junior Boy and Girl divisions respectively.
Day 3 of racing also saw the start of races in the Formula and Raceboard class with 3 races completed for each fleet. Chris Newman (GBR-88), runner-up in the Formula class of the 2014 edition of the event, took the top spot in the Formula fleet while Joe Chua (SIN-181) currently leads in the Raceboard class.
The 6th edition of the SIM Windsurfing Championship also kicked off today with four races completed in the 4.0m Novice Men, 4.0m Novice Women, 4.7m Intermediate Women, 5.6m Intermediate Men and 6.2m Intermediate Mixed categories. The Championship sees windsurf novices from SIM, SMU, NTU, NUS and ITE competing for top honours.
Racing will continue on the fourth and final day on Sunday, 25 January, with the first possible start of racing scheduled at 11h00.
