Fillah Karim records Canada's best result at 2022 ILCA 7 Men's World Championship

2022 ILCA 7 Men's World Championship © John Pounder / www.jldigitalmedia.net

Canadian sailor Fillah Karim from Vancouver, BC, closed out the 2022 ILCA 7 Men's World Championship as the top Canadian with a 43rd-place finish.

Throughout the competition held May 23-28 in Riviera Nayarit, MEX, Karim won race #2 and finished in the top 10 in three of the six qualification races, allowing him to start the final stage in 16th place overall. He ended the competition in 43rd position following the six additional races held in the final round.

The 43rd-place finish represents a personal best for him at the World Championship, as he improved his ranking by three places from last year's competition held in Barcelona, SPA.

"It was a super challenging regatta," pointed out the 24-year-old sailor from the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club. "Although technically this is my best Worlds result, it was overall an extremely disappointing performance. I sailed a clean qualifying series, which included winning the second race of the regatta, and I was in 16th place after six races. Once we started the Gold Fleet racing, I just couldn't seem to put any good races together and the higher-caliber fleet really punished me for my weaknesses. At the end of the day, it's not the result we were looking for coming here, but it's another step in the process. As always, we will take the lessons learned here and come back stronger next year."

A first since 2016

For the first time since 2016, when the event was called the Laser Standard Men's World Championship, Canada had two sailors qualified in the Gold Fleet at this year's ILCA 7 Men's World Championship. In addition to Karim, two-time Olympian Tom Ramshaw from Toronto, ON, was also part of the group and he took the 52nd spot overall.

Following the six qualification races, the top half of all sailors in the rankings are grouped in the Gold Fleet and compete against each other in the final round for an additional six races, which count towards the final rankings.

"The regatta was really tough," said Ramshaw. "Unfortunately, my preparation wasn't ideal in the lead-up to the regatta. I've had some focus on other sailing activities lately and I would need more Laser-specific training to improve on things like boat handling and speed. I definitely feel like I can easily improve on this result."

Canada was represented by a total of nine sailors at the 2022 ILCA 7 Men's World Championship.

Final Canadian results at the 2022 ILCA 7 Men's World Championship:

43. Fillah Karim (Vancouver, BC, RVYC) - Canadian Sailing Development Squad
52. Tom Ramshaw (Toronto, ON - RCYC) - Canadian Sailing Team
70. Luke Ruitenberg (St. Margaret's Bay, N.S., RNSYS) - Canadian Sailing Development Squad
71. James Juhasz (Oakville, ON, BHYC) - Canadian Sailing Development Squad
78. Forrest Wachholz (Innisfil, ON, Barrie YC) - Canadian Sailing Development Squad
81. Liam Bruce (Oakville, ON, Port Credit YC) - Canadian Sailing Development Squad
90. Ben Flower (Tobermory, ON, Tobermory YC)
94. Ryan Anderson (Halifax, N.S., RNSYS) - Canadian Sailing Development Squad
105. Norman Struthers (Toronto, ON, RCYC)

More details are available on Sail Canada website at www.sailing.ca.