Koo Beats Anuar In Joho, Now Looking To Monsoon Cup Malaysia

Jeremy Koo (MAS) once again showed why he is the country’s top match racer when he led One Malaysia Match Racing Team/Sime Darby Foundation to win Liga Layar Malaysia Johor, beating Nurul Elia Anuar (MAS) and her ReMix Team in the final at Danga Bay.

As the participation of Koo and his team is only for practice for the upcoming Monsoon Cup Malaysia, runner up Elia Anuar bagged the winner’s prize money of RM6,000.

“We achieved what we had set out to do but there is still room for improvement. The guys did pretty well and with another week of training, hopefully we’ll get better,” Koo said after his win.

Hazwan Hazim Dermawan (MAS), captaining Team ATSC (Aerospace Technology System Corp), pipped Mohd Masyuri Rahmat (MAS) and RMNMRT@151 Racing Team for third place, taking home RM4,000 while Rahmat walked away with RM3,000.

Amirrul Asyraf Ibrahim, Assistant Director of Johor Tourism Department, gave away the prizes to the winners.

Surprise finalist Elia Anuar had earlier given Rahmat a hard time on the water, both winning two races before the ReMix Team skipper sailed past the navy man in the decider to clinch her spot in the finals.

This was Elia Anuar’s second appearance in LLM finals, the first being in Terengganu last November. The lone female skipper in the circuit, Elia Anuar will be setting her sights to the SEA Games in Singapore this June to be Malaysia’s representative for match racing.

Meanwhile, Koo’s confidence level is high and given the overseas exposure he has had in the past year as well as the benefit of being guided by international coaches, it would surely help with his performance in the Monsoon Cup Malaysia.

“This will be my fifth appearance and every time I will go into the tournament with high hopes and I wish this would be a better year.”

Laurie Dury, the national coach who had been overseeing Koo and his team is pleased with their performance.

“They have come along way in the three days we have been here and they are quite focused with the goals that we are heading towards and I think we getting to the level now where we might be able to beat some of the teams (in the Monsoon Cup),” Dury commented.

Final standings
Champion: Jeremy Koo (One Malaysia Match Racing Team/Sime Darby Foundation)
Runner-up: Nurul Elia Anuar (ReMix Team)
Third: Hazwan Hazim Dermawan (Team ATSC (Aerospace Technology System Corp))
Fourth: Masyuri Rahmat (RMNMRT@151 Racing Team)