Six women are bent on proving their mettle in the 2020 Royal Langkawi International Regatta (RLIR) Championship.

The members of the all-women team MYGadis have no qualms about competing in the Sportboat class, which is dominated by men.

They are skipper Norzuhaira Ruhanie, Adlina Maria Abdul Majid, Zanarita Nasir, Ain Dzulaiqa Azmi, Nooral Syeedah Shek Md Sidik and Rujinah Abdul Razak.

Norzuhaira, 43, who has been involved in the sport since the age of 13, said besides competing against the men, they also had to battle the harsh weather, strong winds and waves when operating the yacht.

“The long-established plan to form a women’s team was only realised this year.”

She said the team was ready for the challenge after less than a month of training.

“All the team members are committed to making MYGadis a success, ” she told reporters at the Royal Langkawi Yacht Club (RLYC).

She said RLIR 2020 marks the start of the team’s active participation in the sport.

“On the first day of the race, MYGadis was in fourth place and the target is to try to finish as many races as we can, ” she said.

Up to the third race, MYGadis is still in fourth place with 12 points while the MSA-MSN team topped the race with only four penalty points, followed by Navy 1 and UMT with five and nine points, respectively.

LANGKAWI, 8 Jan — Pasukan ‘Team Hollywood’ dari Australia (kanan) dikejar pasukan ‘THA72’ dari Thailand ketika perlumbaan bagi kategori ‘Kelas Racing’ berlangsung pada hari kedua pada Kejohanan Regatta Antarabangsa Diraja Langkawi (RLIR) 2020 edisi ke-18 hari ini.
Bagi kategori ‘Kelas Racing’ pasukan ‘Team Hollywood’ dari Australia berjaya merampas kedudukan pertama selepas memungut empat mata penalti manakala tempat kedua pasukan ‘THA72’ dari Thailand memungut lapan mata dan ketiga pasukan ‘efileConnect’ dari Belanda (sembilan mata).
Tempat keempat pasukan ‘Windsikher’ dari Singapura (15 mata) dan tempat kelima pasukan ‘Zuhal’ dari Malaysia yang memungut 19 mata keseluruhan pada hari kedua.
–fotoBERNAMA (2020) HAK CIPTA TERPELIHARA

The RLIR 2020 features seven classes of competition, namely Racing, IRC 1, IRC 2, Sportboat, Cruising, Multihull and White Sail.

Team Hollywood of Australia, the defending champions in the Racing category of the RLIR last year, have continued their dominance this time around, as they finished top after the first three races.

The excellent wind speed allowed the team led by Ray Roberts to pick up only three penalty points from all three races which began from RLYC.

Meanwhile, Malaysian team “Zuhal” led by Salleh Ahmad felt that despite a good start, they had a hard time competing with four other teams, which resulted in them collecting 15 penalty points.

“The first race started off well (for us) with wind speeds of 13 and 14 knots but there were some minor mistakes that caused us to be left behind.

“Attempts to improve our time in the second and third races also did not work out but it didn’t break our spirit.

“Zuhal is the only Malaysian team in the Racing category so we have to continue to fight and improve throughout the rest of the race.

“As long as the race is not over, we will not give up, ” said Salleh. — Bernama