KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia made the cut to the Star Sailors League (SSL) Gold Cup final series in Bahrain despite a third-place finish in the last race in Switzerland on Sunday.
According to a statement from the SSL Malaysia team today, ‘The Monsoon’ became the second squad from Group 7, Round 5 to qualify for the final series scheduled for November after South Africa.
At the end of the four-day race that begun last Thursday, Malaysia collected 12 points while India earned 11 points, to finish second and third, respectively.
South Africa officially booked a ticket to Bahrain on Saturday after collecting three maximum points in four races and thus emerged winners of Group 7 with 19 points.
South Africa or known as ‘Ubuntu’ went into Sunday’s race without any pressure to record another six points in the last race after ending the race with a time of 46:49 seconds (s).
India crossed the finishing marker 1.20s behind South Africa, to finish in second place while Malaysia, who are the lowest ranked team in Group 7, at world number 61, were 2:39s behind the winner but made their mark to secure the last berth to the final series.
“We qualified for the final in Bahrain despite finishing in third place but it was enough. We will now focus on Bahrain, do better there and we would like to thank those who supported us,” said national sailor Khairulnizam Mohd Afendy.
The draw to decide the opening groups for the final will follow with the date to be announced shortly.
Other teams who have qualified comprise Ukraine, Thailand, Oman, Cuba, Peru, Chile, Portugal, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Lithuania, Estonia, Ireland, Antigua and Barbuda and Tahiti. – BERNAMA
