CHENNAI: The first leg of the Unifi Capital Offshore Regatta from Chennai to Puducherry was flagged off from the Chennai Port on Thursday morning. The four J80 class sailboats were expected to take around 24 hours to cover the 160 kilometers due to the weather conditions, but all of them reached Puducherry in less than 17 hours.
Team INWTC (from the Navy) comprising of Imo Lemnok, Praveen Kumar, AN Swami and Sonu Jatal finished first, reaching the finishing line at 00.27 a.m. on March 12.
Team VCS (from Royal Madras Yacht Club) comprising of Commander Abhilash Tomy, Chinna Reddy, Abhimanyu Panwar and Captain Vivek Shanbag came second. Team RMYC picked up the pace initially, followed closely by Team INWTC. This was the pattern the first 9 hours with the other two teams — Team PSA (Pondicherry Sailing Association) lead by Lt. cdr. Vartika Joshi and Team EMESA (from the Army) lead by Col. Srinivas lagging around 3 km behind. However, in the last one km of the race, when the winds suddenly dropped from around 12 knots to around 4 knots, Team INWTC picked up the pace.
Ram helps Vivekananda win
Riding on Ram Arvindh’s 110, RKM Vivekananda College thrashed Guru Nanak College A by 20 runs in the men’s final of the 7th Pavit Singh Nayar Memorial All-India inter-collegiate T20 tournament.
Brief scores: (all Finals): Men: RKM Vivekananda College 167/6 in 20 ovs (Ram Arvindh 110; Gurjapneet Singh 3/17) bt Guru Nanak College A 147 in 18 ovs (S Aravind 47, Anirudh Seshadri 39; M Silambarasan 4/18, P Vidyuth 3/39). MoM and player of the tournament: Ram Arvindh. Women: Dr MGR Janaki College 120/5 in 19 ovs (J Mythili 41 n.o, R Deepika 33) bt Chellammal College 112/8 in 19 ovs (K Logaratshai 39; V Priyanka 3/5). WoM and player of the tournament: J Mythili.
Deepak bags title
Deepak Senthilkumar beat Kavin Masilamani 6-2, 3-6, 6-1 to bag the men’s singles crown at the MPTA-AITA Open men’s tennis tournament.
Results: (all finals): Singles: Deepak Senthilkumar (TN) bt Kavin Masilamani (TN) 6-2, 3-6, 6-1. Doubles: Irfan Hussain (TN)/Ihsan Hussain (TN) bt Theyjo Oges (TN)/Madhan PV Kumar (HR) 2-6, 6-2, 10-8.
Chitrapandian no more
Former India player and secretary of the Chennai District Volleyball Association AK Chitrapandian passed way on Friday. He was 67 years old and is survived by his wife and two daughters. Chitrapandian also captained the Tamil Nadu team. He had also represented the Railways team in the senior national championship. He retired as a manager with IOB. A few days back he successfully completed the Chennai District A division volleyball league. People fondly remember him for conducting the All-India John Memorial volleyball, which was well received the fans.