Makai Joell finished as the top Bermuda sailor at the Optimist World Championships which came to a close on Friday in Langkawi, Malaysia.Joell completed the regatta in the 75th spot out of 231 sailors and along the way scored Bermuda’s best race of the regatta, a 9th place in the opening race.The 14-year-old’s achievement is all the more remarkable considering he had not originally qualified in the top five to attend the Worlds.Two sailors who had qualified ahead of both Joell and Ceci Wollmann chose not to attend allowing the two reserves to make up the Island’s five sailor team.Current national champion Sam Stan was next in 93rd followed by Antonio Bailey in 169th, Wollmann in 198th and Chase Cooper in 208th.Female Noppakao Poonpat of Thailand won the last race of the championship and became the Optimist World Champion in fine style.After an OCS and a 16th in previous day’s races, Noppakao could still be beaten by Ahmad Syukri Bin Abdul Azizended (Malaysia) but in true champion style she kept control of the race from the start.The top 10 positions were dominated by Asian sailors with the exception of Marvin Firsch from Germany in 5th and Odile Van Aanholt in 9th. Both Firsch and Van Aanholt had trained in Bermuda this fall.Team leader Anthony Bailey said: “I believe the team learnt a lot about what it takes to be a world-beater but more importantly over the past 16 days they also learnt a little bit about each other and the importance of ‘team’.“ As for Langkawi, which had earned the pre-regatta reputation as being a light air venue, of the fifteen races contested the majority of them were contested in wind that blew at least 12 knots and as previously reported for a few races the wind was blowing as much as 17 to 18 knots.”Next up for Bermuda’s young sailors is the IODA South American Championships in Algarrobo, Chile in April followed by the IODA North American Championships in Long Beach, California in late June.Next year’s World Championships will be held in Napier, New Zealand in December. All five of this year’s World’s team will be eligible to qualify for that event.