Yusef Hazari of Royal College who made history last year setting a record as the youngest to win at the Sailing Nationals, won Gold again in the Optimist class at the National Sailing Championship 2023 at the Crow Island Sea Front last week.
Hazari won five out of six races while Kyasha Samarakkody from Ladies College won Silver and Minuga Hettigamage from Royal College won Bronze.
The Gold for the ILCA 4 class was fiercely fought between S. Thomas’ and Ladies College with Tharen Nanayakkara of S. Thomas’ College, Mount Lavinia winning Gold and Taalya Tranchell from Ladies College coming in second place with Silver. Omar Hazari of Royal College won bronze in the ILCA 4 category.
In the ILCA 6 category, J.S Senevirathna from the Navy won the Gold medal while Jehan de Silva from S. Thomas’ College won Silver and WAS Weerathunga from the Navy won the bronze medal. Kethaka Weerasuriya of the Royal Colombo Yacht Club sailed away with the Gold in the ILCA 7 class with NGMU Gunanawardana and KGKUS Bandara representing the Navy winning Silver and Bronze respectively.
Navy dominated the GP 14 and Enterprise classes winning all three medals in both categories. AMJP Attanayake and KSK de Silva won Gold with JHMPI Jayapathma and PPN Kumara winning Silver in the Enterprise category while TDS Perera and LACM Gunathilaka won bronze.
Sailors fought hard for the Gold in the GP 14 category with JMPL Jayasooriya and ASK de Soyza finally winning Gold and WADR Kumara and GPS de Silva coming in a close second winning Silver.
Windsurfers whizzed past with WAS Weeratunga of Navy winning Gold, Chaminda Kumara Silva representing the Bentota Water Sport Club winning Silver and Priyantha Gunawardana of the Navy taking the Bronze.