Royal College student, 13-year-old Yusef Hazari, became the youngest sailor ever to win the Sri Lanka Sailing Nationals racing in the Optimist class at the Bolgoda Lake last week.
Hazari, a grade Eight student raced to a clear victory in the back-to-back races that lasted six hours. He came in first in five of the six races with Tharen Nanayakkara and Nikhil Nanayakkara of S. Thomas’ College coming in second and third.
A record number of 117 sailors were in the race while the Navy emerged the winners claiming five of the seven classes.
“Sailing is like chess on water. This time it was about catching the wind at the right moment and working with it. It was pretty intense and we had to sail without a break for six hours for this reason,” said Hazari.