By Sports Reporter/Doha


Sailors from sixteen countries will take part in the Optimist Asian & Oceanian Championships 2015 which will start here tomorrow.
The 16-member Qatar squad which has four female participants will also take part in the event which will conclude on October 30.
Israa al-Sulaiti, Vera Palazzi, Anna Borras and Shahed al-Awamlah are the four girls who will represent Qatar at the six-day championships.
The rest of the Qatar team members are Kheireddine Bouchema, Ali al-Sharshani, Abdulla al-Sharshani, Mohcen al-Sharshani, Mohmed al-Sharshani, Ali al-Marhoon, Yacine al-Benzarti, Zaid al-Awamlah, Gililiano Palazzi, Ghanim al-Sewaidi, Abdurehman al-Nasser and Maxence Boggio.
The Optimist Asian & Oceanian Championship comprises of two championships, the Optimist Individual Asian & Oceanian Championship (IAOC) and the Optimist Asian & Oceanian Team Racing Championship (TRAOC). Both the events are open for competitors born in 2000 or later.
Sailors from Australia, Bahrain, China, China Taipei, Finland, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Oman, Qatar, Singapore, Thailand, Turkey, UAE and USA, will be vying for individual and team honours.
The Optimist Asian & Oceanian Championship is organised by Qatar Sailing and Water Sports Federation under the authority of the International Optimist Dinghy Association (IODA) and ten races are scheduled with a maximum of three races per day.
Prizes will be given for sailors from Asia and Oceania, and also for the female category in the individual category.
For the IAOC, prizes will be awarded to the three best-placed sailors regardless of gender and continent of residence, the three best-placed female sailors regardless of their continent of residence, three best-placed sailors without gender distinction whose IODA member is from Asia, the first of whom will become the Asian Champion of the corresponding year, the three best-placed sailors without gender distinction whose IODA member is from Oceania, the first of whom will become the Oceania Champion of the corresponding year.
In the team championship besides the overall championship, teams will be looking for the Asian and Oceania titles.
For the Team Racing Championships (TRAOC), prizes will be awarded to each member of the three best-placed teams in the Asian & Oceanian Team Racing Championship, the best-placed team whose IODA member is from Asia, they will become the Asian Team Racing Champions. The best placed team whose IODA member is from Oceania will become the Oceanian Team Racing Champions.
At last week’s Sail Qatar 2015 Optimist Team event, two teams from Singapore bagged the first two places while India finished third.