Mohd Hafizi Said & Noor Hidayah Mat Isa, Sailing Training Centre

Universiti Malaysia Terengganu (UMT) and four of its students had every reason to feel proud at a recent tournament although victory escaped them.

Among the 35 teams from all parts of the world that participated in the Royal Langkawi International Regatta (RLIR) in January, only the team from UMT consisted of university students.

The four students competed under the IRC 2 class, going against powerful teams from Australia, Japan, Korea, China, Russian, Germany, Thailand, and Singapore.

Nurul Izzryn Nor Hassan, 22, Amirul Hafeez Mohamed Masarik, 20, Arfan Sulaiman Abu Bakar, 20, and K. Viisnuu, 20, from various disciplines rode UMT’s racing-team boat Telaga Sail99 helmed by Ku Anas Ku Zamil, a former national sailing athlete now serving as a coach at UMT. The four students also received training from UMT sailing coach Nor Naeilah Nor Hassan.

The students were only able to train for three weeks, but that did not dampen their competitive spirit.

The main challenge was the short training period, but the students worked hard at practicing all the sailing skills they had learned at the university, the coach said.

Another issue was that the boat they used during training was different than the one during the actual race, and it takes time to get acclimatized to something new, added the coach.

For Nurul Izzryn, first year fisheries student, taking part in the tournament was a priceless experience.

“The conditions during the actual races were different from the training sessions, but my friends and I took every opportunity to watch experienced sailors and gain new first-hand knowledge that is hard to come by at other places,” she said. “While we were practicing, the water was calm, but at RLIR the condition of the sea and the wind were different, and these posed a great challenge to us.

In addition, 15 UMT students were invited to the tournament to be part of the technical team. This marked the fourth year of UMT representatives being invited to join the technical team during the tournament. This speaks volumes of the organizer’s trust towards the expertise and skills of UMT students in sailing.

For this year the UMT team received sponsorship from Royal Langkawi Yacht Club and Telaga Harbour Sdn. Bhd, a company offering marina management and services, yacht management and services, and yacht sales and chartering.