The top places were all decided, but other podium positions were up for grabs in the last two races of the Goa International Sailing Week (GISW) for the vClusive Cup at Cidade de Goa, Vainguinim Beach and Dolphin Adventure Sports, Hawaii Beach, Dona Paula.
Panaji
Goa’s Ajay Patel and Guru Nath sailed out of their skins to take second place in both races, to beat AWSA’s Indramani Yadav and Navven Vashist by a solitary point and take second place overall in Hobie Cats. This is the very first time that a team from Goa has taken a podium position in the glamorous Hobie Cat class.
In other classes too, the last two races were deciders, as EMESA’s Israj Ali failed to overtake Deelip Kumar. He won Race 11, but was beaten to second place by Himanshu Yadav of INSA. Champion Upamanyu Dutta had taken an insurmountable lead, and did not sail today’s races.
RS:X windsurfing champ Maheshwar Padham took it easy, sitting in third place as INSA’s Rahul Choudhary and EMESA’s Kamlapati Ojha slugged it out, with the former prevailing by just one point. Racing in the light morning winds did not make life any easier for the high-profile event Jury headed by Brig Jagsdish Singh (Retd), which comprised YAI’s Director of Training Capt Tribhuvan Jaiswal, Laser Class Association of India Gen Secretary Lt Col Bhuvan Khare, Arjun Pradipak and Goa Yachting Association Gen Secretary Siddharth Satardekar, which had to hear a number of protests before the results were declared.
Among distinguished visitors to observe the sailing action was Panaji MLA Sidharth Kunkalienkar, who saw the action close up from a motor yacht. The vClusive Goa International Sailing Week will be held next year from January 25 to 28.
