Brijraj Verma at the helm and P. Seshagiri Rao as crew of the Indian Navy Watermanship Training Centre, Mumbai retained National Hobie 16 title in the seventh edition of the sailing championship, which concluded here on Tuesday.
The INWTC team has 12 penalty points at the end of 10th round, five points less than Kamlesh Patel and U.B. Rawankar of Army Yachting Node, another Mumbai team.
Last year's runner-up K. Yakobu from Artilley Water Sports Association, Hyderabad, with Rajeev Kumar as crew managed 24 penalty points to finish third.
Kaushal Kumar of AWSA, who has Amreen Malik a local swimmer and a medal winner as crew in the senior National women swimming championships, was fifth and the locals were happy that their efforts to promote Hobie 16 here were showing results.
Taramati Matwade, who was crew of Yakobu when he won the Sail the Gulf competition this year, had bad luck pursuing throughout this championship as her boat faced problems in some of the races.
Brijraj and Seshagiri talking about the championship at the end of the last race said that the winds with a speed of 20 knots posed a challenge to the sailors.
They have echoed the feeling of many Hobie 16 sailors and officials when they said that support from the Government and the Yachting Association of India were required for Hobie 16, which was getting popular. Had India sent its entry to the Guangzhou Asian Games, Hobie 16 team would have won a medal, Brijraj said.
The results:
Top 10 teams: 1. Brijraj Verma/ P. Seshagiri Rao (INWTC, 12 penalty points); 2. Kamlesh Patel/ U.B. Rawankar (AYN, 17); 3. K. Yakobu/ Rajeev Kumar (AWSA, 24); 4. Imolemnok/ Rahu Rai (INWTC, 26); 5. Kaushal Kumar/ Amreen Malik (AWSA, 41); 6. M. Girish/Bikash Mathi (AWSA, 41); 7. A.B. Praveena/ Mitesh Janjikar (AWSA, 59); 8. Jagat Narayan/ Ravikumar (AWSA, 62); 9. Lokesh Yadav/ Sanjeev Ragav (AWSA, 63); 10. J.C. Behera/ M.A. Suresh (INWTC, 76).
