The Yacht Club of Okayama University took second place in the team competition of the 2019 Intercollegiate Sailing Championships in the Chugoku and Shikoku Region, held on June 28 to 30 at Marine Park Niihama (Niihama City, Ehime Prefecture).

The Championships comprise two events: the International 470 Class and the International Snipe Class. In each event, individual members of the teams compete in individual championships, and rating points are awarded in accordance with the place taken by each competitor, based on which the ranking of the teams is determined. In the International 470 Class competition, 32 yachts from nine universities participated, with our students winning second and third places: the pair of FUJII Kazuya (fourth year of the Faculty of Economics) and ONO Yusuke (third year of the Faculty of Law) took second place, while the pair of SHIBA Kaito (third year of the Faculty of Engineering) and KOIKE Riku (fourth year of the Faculty of Environmental Science and Technology) took third place. In the International Snipe Class event, 27 yachts from nine universities competed, with the pair of SHIBATA Chisato (third year of the Faculty of Law) and HIRATSUKA Takahiro (third year of the Faculty of Environmental Science and Technology) coming in second, and the pair of ISHIDA Koki (third year of the Faculty of Engineering) and OZAKI Hiroto (fourth year of the Faculty of Engineering) placing fourth. As a result, in the team competition in each event, the Okayama University team came in second, and in overall, they took second place.

The Championships served as a preliminary competition in the Chugoku region for the All Japan Intercollegiate Individual Sailing Championships, which is to be held from September 5 in the Toyota Industries Kaiyoh Yacht Harbor (Gamagori City, Aichi Prefecture); qualification to take part in the national competition was awarded to the yachts that came in the top four in the individual competitions of the two sailing events.

After the Championship, the Yacht Club captain MIYOSHI said: “In these championships, we were not able to achieve our objective of occupying all the top four positions in the individual competition in order to enter the All Japan Championships, and win the overall team victory. With the start of the yacht racing season in spring, we will be humbled to practice even harder so we can compete in the coming event with more confidence.