Koo Again...

...Jeremy Retains His MMRC Title

Jeremy Koo and his Abdullah Chan/KRT team staged a great comeback to defend his Malaysian Match Racing Championship title in a pulsating final against Hazwan Hazim Dermawan who skippered the Permai Hotel Sailing Team.

Earlier in the day, dead wind forced the postponement of the semi-finals between Koo and Masyuri Rahmat of the MAF2 team and Hazwan against the UPM Sailing Team skippered by Mohd Romzi Muhammad. Koo and Romzi were leading 1-0 after the first flight which was staged late evening yesterday.


After the lunch break, everybody took to the waters and Koo found himself 2-1 down against a determined Masyuri who qualified for his first MMRC semi-finals after finishing third in the qualifying rounds. It looked like choosing The Malaysian Navy personnel as his opponent could backfire on Koo.

However Koo fought back and in the end won the fifth race to enter the final against Hazwan who won his battles with Romzi with an identical scoreline. Thus it was Koo against Hazwan for a place at the 2011 Monsoon Cup in November.

Masyuri and Romzi would seek consolation in the Petit Final. The former improved considerably on his eighth finish in last year's edition of the MMRC and despite being disappointed at failing to close the deal while leading in the last four, was upbeat about his chance for next year's edition of the MMRC.

The Petit Final was a race to two points and the score were tied after two rounds. However Masyuri dug deep and managed to defeat Romzi in the final race.

The final itself was an intense affair with Koo managing to take the lead but the Hazwan with sound advice from Nik Asyraf Qaedi drew level and then went ahead after three flights. It looked to be all over when Hazwan managed to get Koo penalised for an offence during the pre-start manoeuvring.

This put Koo under some pressure but trusting his instinct he managed to have a good start and during this flight he and his crews went all out to ensure of a fight to the finish. They managed to negate the earlier penalty and came in first to force the 'winners take all' flight.

It was another close fight but after Koo managed to force Hazwan into an offence which incur a penalty, the winner was never in doubt. Koo crossed the finish line well ahead of Hazwan and took the pass to the 2011 Monsoon Cup as the Malaysian Match Racing Champions.

Hazwan will have another shot at the pass as he has been given entry to the Asian Match Racing Championship which would start on Tuesday.


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