(MENAFN- Muscat Daily) Vladimir Prosikhin's Team Nika emerged as a comfortable winner of the RC44 Oman Cup on the final day of the series in Muscat on Sunday while defending champion Team Aqua kept its stranglehold on the overall championship title once again.
Going into the concluding day's racing Nika with tactician Terry Hutchinson calling the shots sat at the top of the leaderboard. Having shown an unmatched level of consistency throughout the four days of fleet racing in Muscat Nika won the title with one race to spare after finishing fourth in the first race and third in the second race.
Team Aqua crew with the overall RC44 Tour winner's trophy
Aqua looked to have the overall Championship Tour title wrapped up but it didn't get off to the best of starts being called over the line in the opening race rounding the windward mark last.
Out in front Vladimir Liubomirov's Bronenosec Sailing Team took its first win of the event. Fellow countrymen Synergy finished second followed by Peninsula Petroleum. Aqua could only recover to ninth place.
Charisma claimed the second race of the day its third win in Oman as Nico Poon's team jumped into second overall ahead of Aqua which by its high standards was having a bad day finishing fifth and falling to third overall.
Nika had already secured the RC44 Oman Cup with a race to spare the fight for the remaining podium positions was now on in the final race.
Four points separated Charisma in second from Aqua and Artemis both tied on 52 points going into the final race. Aqua moved up to second by the time it ended with Artemis finishing one place behind. Charisma's seventh-place finish dropped it down to third overall.
Nika owner Prosikhin enjoyed his first victory in the class. 'It was a long journey I wanted it badly and finally we've done it. It feels great. Somehow we sailed really well everyone on board. We had great starts and everything worked out really well.'
Aqua successfully defended its RC44 Championship title for another year the fourth time the team has lifted the trophy since joining the class in 2007.
Its owner Chris Bake said 'It seems we like making it difficult for ourselves. It went down to the last race of the last regatta. It just goes on to show how competitive the fleet is and what good sailors we are fighting pretty hard to hold on.'
Results: RC44Oman Cup:
1 Team Nika (39 pts) 2 Team Aqua (54) 3 Charisma (55) 4 Artemis Racing (55) 5 Synergy Russian Sailing Team (64) 6 Peninsula Petroleum (66) 7 Katusha (69) 8 Bronenosec Sailing Team (77) 9 Gazprom Youth Sailing Team (87) 9 Aleph Racing (94).
Overall standings:
1 Aqua (8) 2 Peninsula (13) 3 Bronenosec (17) 4 Charisma (17) 5 Nika (18) 6 Artemis (20) 7 Synergy (21) 8 Gazprom (30) 9 Katusha (31) 10 Bombarda Racing (33) 11 Aleph (35) Artemis Racing Youth (48) MAG Racing (46).
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