HYERES: Sailor Khairulnizam Mohd Affendy is set to make his fourth Olympic appearance in Paris after securing his berth at the Last Chance Regatta in Hyeres, France.
Khairulnizam sealed his qualification in the ILCA 7 class after finishing a creditable third with 63 net points following a tumultuous campaign in the Last Chance Regatta.
South Korea's Ha Jee Min finished first with 43 net points ahead of Estonia's Karl-Martin Rammo, who was second.
Khairulnizam said he had a bad start after being black-flagged in Race 1, but he bounced back to finish third in Race 2, fifth in Race 5, fourth in Race 4, first in Race 5, third in Race 6, 19th in Race 7, eighth in Race 8, 19th in Race 9 before finishing 10th in Race 10.
The 30-year-old said he was determined on winning Olympic qualification and is in the best form of his career.
Earlier this month, Khairulnizam finished 16th out of 193 sailors at the World Cup Series in Mallorca, Spain.
"This is a special one. I competed in a few qualifying competitions for Paris but narrowly missed the mark, so I was fired up to do well in the Last Chance Regatta," said Khairulnizam.
"I was black-flagged in Race 1, which cost me a lot to recover from. One more mistake and I'm done.
This is where my experience came together. I stayed calm and took one race at a time."
Khairulnizam, who made his Olympic debut in London 2012 and also competed in Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020, said he will focus on his training in Europe for the Olympics.
"I will use my own money to train in Marseille from May. There will be training groups there and some regatta coaches."
