Juni ready to set sail for Tokyo Olympics

By Siti Alya Nadiah Ismail

KUALA LUMPUR, July 2  -- Juni Karimah Noor Jamali, Malaysia’s youngest sailor to the Tokyo Olympics, and her teammate Nuraisyah Jamil are ready to compete in the world's biggest games this month.

Juni, 19, who will be making her Olympics debut, said she had made all the necessary preparations and is now fine-tuning the aspect of technical and tactical analysis required in Japan.

"I will compete at the Olympics for the first time, so I hope to achieve the target set by our coach to be in the top 15," she said when contacted by Bernama.

Juni, who is currently training at the National Yacht Training Centre in Langkawi under coach Muhammad Sahir A Rahim, will compete in the International 470 women's event as a crew, with Nuraisyah at the helm.

She hopes to give her rivals a run for their money at the Enoshima Yacht Harbour.

She, however, was a little upset for not being able to participate in warm-up tournaments abroad before going to Tokyo as many competitions had been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"However, our coaches have a plan B, which was to hold training at the Rakan Muda Water and Air Sports Complex (KRMSAU) in Desaru, Johor from March to April where the atmosphere was much like in Japan with the big waves and all," she added.

Juni, a student at Universiti Teknologi MARA Arau in Perlis, said she has no problem juggling her roles as an athlete and a student because classes are held online.

"Usually we practise in the afternoon, while classes are conducted via recording or Google Meet. So if it's recording, I'll go for the training first; if it's Google Meet, I'll go to class first," she said.

Apart from Juni and Nuraisyah, two other national sailing athletes who have qualified for Tokyo are Khairulnizam Mohd Afendy in standard laser event and Nur Shazrin Mohd Latif in laser radial.

-- BERNAMA