Schedule change hurts Pakistan sailors’ performance

LAHORE: Pakistan were off to a poor start in the sailing competitions of the 19th Asian Games at the Ningbo Xiangshan Sailing Centre on Thursday.

In the youth classes, two Pakistani sailors also missed their first race due to change of schedule which had not been updated on the website. In the ILCA 4 under-18 girls race-1 Zoya Asad Ali did not compete in the pack carrying eight racers due to her delayed arrival at the race venue because of a big confusion which had been created by the change of time of the race. The issue also hit Javed Raphael hard as he was also competing in the same class boys section.

“In the original schedule their races were scheduled to start at 2pm but the organisers changed the programme. They needed to update that on the notice board of the sailing centre and on the website. They said that they had done that on the notice board but it was not updated on the website and I had taken its screenshot at the time when this issue emerged,” an official accompanying Pakistan sailing squad told The News.

“We have lodged a complaint in this regard that due to mistake of the management our players were not able to attend the first race in time. It also hit the second race because they hurriedly prepared the boats. So these were the issues. If there was 20 percent mistake of our players there was 80 percent mistake of the event’s management,” the official said.

In the ILCA 4 race-2 Zoya Asad Ali finished at the sixth spot with six penalty points. The sailors of Thailand, Korea and India finished at the top three places in that order.

In the ILCA4 boys’ race-1 which Javed missed the sailors of Thailand, Singapore and Hong Kong finished at the top three places.

However, in the race-2 Javed finished at the last 12th place with 12 points. The sailors of Thailand, Singapore and UAE finished at the pole three positions.

In the 470 class, featuring seven pairs, Pakistan’s crew comprising Nadine Xerxes Avari and Mehboob finished sixth in the first race and faced disqualification in the second. In the ILCA 7, featuring 13 sailors, Pakistan’s Muzammil Hassan got retired in the first race. India’s sailor finished at the summit with sailors of Korea and China following him.

In the second race of this event Muzammil Hassan finished tenth with ten penalty points. Sailors from Korea, Hong Kong and Japan finished the day at the top three places. The official meanwhile termed Pakistan’s performance on the day-1 as disappointing.

“It was an entirely disappointing performance but let’s see how results come tomorrow. Today in the youth classes things were done hurriedly,” the official said.