Fil-Brit lad nails bronze in tough European sailing tilt

KIEL, Germany — Hong Kong sailing club J-Asia scored its first big win at this year’s Kieler-Woche (Kiel Week) 2013 with a third-place win in the Laser 4.7 by sailor Gerald Williams last Sunday

Williams, 17, is the first Hong Kong sailor to place in the top 3 at the international event, which attracts sailors from all over the world each year.

Among the sailors who took part in the Kieler-Woche 2013 was Brazil’s Robert Scheidt, who has won two Olympic golds and two silver medals in different sailing classes (Scheidt bagged second place at his Kiel Week campaign this year).

Kieler-Woche was established in 1882 and is the largest sailing event in the world drawing as many as 5,000 sailors.

“Kiel Week is as significant to sailing as Wimbledon is to tennis and Gerald is a good sailor who trains hard and studies hard as well,” J-Asia coach Nostitz-Jackowski said. “It is great to see that his hard work reaps rewards. I’m looking forward to seeing Gerald go from strength to strength as he works toward his dream of qualifying for the Olympics.”

The Hong Kong-born, British-Filipino-Chinese Williams began sailing at age 10 off Port Shelter in Sai Kung, and won distinction as Hong Kong’s top Optimist class dinghy sailor in 2009 under Nostitz-Jackowski. Also in 2009, Williams and three of his team-mates took part in the China Cup International Regatta and won first place in their boat division during the Hong Kong to Shenzhen Passage Race.

In 2011 Williams placed 4th at his first international Laser 4.7 event at Warnemunde-Woche, and rounded out his first Laser 4.7 Worlds Campaign in San Francisco by placing 9th in the Under 16 division. Williams also represented Hong Kong at the Asian Sailing Championships in 2012.

ABOUT J-ASIA

J-Asia is dedicated to coaching dinghy sailing excellence not just in Hong Kong but across Asia. It was established in 2012 by head coach Marek Nostitz-Jackowski, who has a long and proven track record in the Optimist and Laser dinghy classes both here and in Poland. His Hong Kong students are consistently on top of Hong Kong’s dinghy sailing meets. Before his arrival in Hong Kong in 2006, Nostitz-Jackowski trained a number of young sailors in Poland who eventually went on to represent their country in the Olympics.

J-Asia students have won distinctions at regattas across Asia.