Nuraisyah-Juni end Olympic challenge in 19th place

TOKYO: National sailing pair of Nuraisyah Jamil-Juni Karimah Noor Jamali ended their maiden Olympic campaign in 19th spot out of 21 sailors in the women's International 470 event at the Enoshima Yacht Harbour here today.

The pair, who train under national coach Muhammad Sahir A Rahim, accumulated 158 net points after 10 races.

Nuraisyah-Juni, however, deserve praise for finishing 11th in Race 10, which is their best achievement in 10 races.

They had earlier completed Race Nine in 17th position.

Great Britain's Hannah Mills-Eilidh McIntyre are on track to bag the gold medal, having accumulated 28 net points, followed by the French pair of Camille Lecointre-Aloise Retornaz (42 net points) and Poland's Agnieszka Skrzypulec-Jolanta Ogar (46 net points).

Race Nine and Race 10 were supposed to be held Monday (Aug 2) but were postponed to Tuesday (Aug 3) due to a lack of wind at the Games venue.

Meanwhile, Muhammad Sahir described his charges' performance today as "extraordinary", especially in Race 10 when they gave a good fight to try and finish among the top 10.

He also said that Nuraisyah-Juni were also more focused to take advantage of the changing wind conditions in the final race.

"I provided them with daily summaries of their major and minor mistakes and today they kept their focus right till the end," he told Bernama today.

He also felt that Nuraisyah-Juni had gained many positive aspects by competing in the Tokyo Olympics since they never had overseas exposure, apart from taking part in domestic competitions for the past two years, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

-- BERNAMA