Minister opens sailing clinic

By Thomas Airey 20 November 2018, 12:00AM

The Minister of Education, Sports and Culture, Loau Keneti Sio, took opened the Samoa Sailing Association’s Race Management Clinic at the Apia Yacht Club.

The four-day event will serve to train the officials and others involved in running sailing at the Pacific Games in Samoa next year.

World Sailing trainer John Parrish and his wife Linda are here from New Zealand to run the clinic.

Loau welcomed the pair on a rainy Apia morning, thanking them for their assistance.

“I hope you’ll enjoy your short visit, and I hope the weather is friendly to you as well,” he said.

After a classroom component, those involved in the training officiated a two day sailing regatta with nearly thirty sailors from American Samoa here to compete, weather permitting.

“As you can see we’ve had a bit of rain the last few days, but I guess a bit of wind and rain is what you need for this sport,” Loau said.

The Minister noted the importance of the clinic with the Pacific Games approaching.

“I hope this course will help our officials and authorities conduct this sport in the best manner.”

Samoa Sailing Association president, Raema von Reiche agreed.

“It is even more important now to have a qualified race management team as the winners of the Men’s and Women’s Laser classes will automatically qualify for the 2020 Olympics,” she said.

“We are very pleased with this and there’s only a few sports at the Games that will be Olympic Qualifiers.”

She said it was a privilege to have the Parrishes in attendance for the clinic.

“We look forward to Mr Parrish sharing his knowledge with our local sailing community.

“It is a lot of work, especially as our executives are all volunteers, however the fantastic support from local companies such as Transam Samoa certainly helps us do more for sailing.”

By Thomas Airey 20 November 2018, 12:00AM
Samoa Observer

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