The Telangana State Open Sailing Championship begins; Shekhar Yadav and Vivin Vinil exhibit good performance

Hyderabad, July 9, 2017: The four-day Telangana State Open Sailing Championship begins with a positive note today here in the city at Yacht Club at Necklace Road.

The Championships attracted more than 50 sailors from across the country, especially from Chennai, Mumbai and Madhyapradesh. The Championship is organized by the Telangana Sailing Association(TSA). It is the official State Championship organized in association with Telangana Tourism and Enerzal.

There were light to medium winds during the morning races but a 25-knot storm blew across the Hussain Sagar lake during the afternoon session flattening most of the fleet into the water rising up with waves and white horses to greet the opening day of the Telangana State Open Regatta

With more than double the entries compared to 2016 the regatta has sailors from Madhya Pradesh, Tamilnadu, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.

The milder morning session saw Shikar Garg of Madhya Pradesh and Shekhar Yadav of Maharashtra dominate the racing in the Laser Radial . In the 4 races sailed Garg got 2 wins and a second and Yadav came in second with just one win and a second.

“I was leading in the second race but unfortunately capsized in the middle of a heavy gust and lost upto 12 positions. I would have got two wins and leading the series had it not been for that” Said Shekhar Yadav of Maharashtra, a Naval Sailor from Mumbai.

The afternoon saw the Junior and Senior fleets battling the heavy weather conditions brought about by a storm leading to winds capping at 25-28 knots and many capsize even before the racing started.

“After a milder morning and close to no weather right up to 1430 hrs we are taken by surprise by the sudden build up of wind but we took it on the chin and completed 2 races for the day in any case” said the veteran race officer of the day Mr. Chaturvedi from the Army Yachting Node Mumbai.

It was close racing between the Tamilnadu sailors and Vivin Vinil of Maharashtra and Koteshwar Rao of Telangana both who took the first and second positions in the Junior category in the first race. Mahesh Balachander was consistent and comes in overall 2nd after two races. Ram Milan Yadav the winner of the Hyderabad Sailing Week had a tough day but recovers to stay at the third position overall with 9 points just two points behind the leaders.

In the senior category Ajay Singh Rajput of the Navy dominated with some great starts and intense physical hiking and keeping his boat flat out in the storm to get one win and a second position to be at the top with 3 points , he is closely followed by Lim John and GCK Reddy of Trishna Sailing Club representing Karnataka.

Results :
Juniors - Laser 4.7
Vivin Vinil - Maharashtra 7 points
Mahesh Balachander - Tamilnadu - 7 points
Ram Milan Yadav Madhya Pradesh - 9 points

Youth - Laser Radial
1. Shikar Garg - Madhya :Pradesh - 9 Points
2. Shekhar Yadav - Maharashtra - 19 points
3. Avinash Yadav - Maharashtra - 20 points

Senior - Laser Standard

Ajay Singh Rajput - Maharashtra 3 points
Lim John - Karnataka - 6 points
GCK Reddy - Andhra Pradesh 7 points