CHENNAI: On the final day of the India International Regatta, the race committee was welcomed with challenging conditions as the wind from the north by east went gusting 18-20 knots coupled with huge swells in the sea. The day, that started off early, saw two races for all the classes with the optimist green fleet sailing just one within the port, owing to the challenging conditions.
Ramadhan Tito from Indonesia emerged the winner of the optimist main fleet, which was the largest fleet with 67 sailors. Saranwong Poopat was favoured by the winds again on Monday as he rose to the second position after getting the gun in both the races resulting in fellow Thai sailor Panwa Boonak moving down to the third place.
Indonesian sailor Samsaurdi who has been on the top of the charts since day one emerged the winner in the Laser 4.7 class followed by Nancy Highfield from Hong Kong. Highfield, who was happy to have bagged the silver in the overall was comfortable sailing in the challenging conditions today “my best races were today, hiking upwind was a little tiring nevertheless I am glad it is over,” she said. Koteshwar Rao replaced Ram Milan Yadav in the third place, bagging the bronze. Aniketh Rajaram of the TNSA who had a great day in these conditions with 2 third place finishes, just missed the podium on the national medals.
India’s ace sailor, Vishnu Saravanan from Trishna Sailing Club, who had been leading the laser radial class since day got the gun in one of the two races today, thereby sealing his position for the gold Christopher Bezy from Hong Kong got the gun in one race and finished third in another, pushing Indian sailor Rishab Nayar to the third place thereby taking home the silver. “It was really nice, the conditions were pretty windy and it was good,” he said delighted to head home, but at the same time having fallen in love with the conditions here.
Anand Thakur and Pradeep Thakur, who were leading the 29er open category throughout won the class having got the gun in all the races except two. The same was the case with sailors Aryaman Dutta and Vishnu Sujeesh who won the 420 open categories.
Dayne Coehlo who was leading the RS1 class from day one was the undisputed winner of the class. Having enjoyed the challenging conditions here today, he said: “This is my favourite kind of condition and I am a little sad that we had just two races today.” The event was a huge success thanks to the excellent organising committee. Despite the challenges faced both at sea and land, the races were all conducted as per schedule and the event went as planned.