Army Yachting Node duo Ayaz Shaikh and Mahesh Yadav emerged unscathed from a tough situation in the 470 class at the sailing selection trials for the Asian Games, which concluded here on Sunday.
However, for Vishnu Saravanan (laser standard), K.C. Ganapathy-Varun Thakkar (49er), Ekta Yadav-Shaila Charls (49er FX), Dayne Coelho (RS: One) and Jerome Kumar (RS:X), overall champions in their categories, it was smooth sailing on the final day.
Dayne and the Ganapathy-Varun combine chose to skip one of the three races today as their positions were secure.
Leading for most part of the four days, Ayaz-Mahesh was judged “guilty” by the jury on Friday after two days of hearing, and when the list was out on Sunday morning, the AYN sailors were penalised 16 points for colliding with Navy’s Praveen Prabhakar and R.K. Sharma in Race 5, and was pushed to the third place.
Undeterred, Ayaz-Mahesh finished first and second in the last two races to emerge second overall behind Atul Lande and C.H.S. Reddy (AYN) and qualify for the Asian championships in Jakarta in June.
The top two in all classes will take part in the Asian sailing championship and the top boat in the ASC will represent India in the Asian Games.
The results (overall, provisional): Men: Laser 4.7: 1. Govind Bairagi (NSS, Bhopal), 2. Sathish Yadav (NSS, Bhopal), 3. Aniketh Rajaram (TNSA).
Laser standard: 1. Vishnu Saravanan (AYN), 2. Mohit Saini (AYN), 3. Gitesh (AYN).
Optimist: 1. R. Neelanand (TNSA), 2. Aashish Vishwakarma (NSS, Bhopal), 3. Ritika Dangi (NSS, Bhopal).
49er: 1. K.C. Ganapathy-Varun Thakkar (TNSA), 2. Narender Singh-S.R. Rout (AYN), 3. Sandeep Jain-Munna Pandit (AYN).
470: 1. Atul Lande-C.H.S. Reddy (AYN), 2. Ayaz Shaikh-Mahesh Yadav (AYN), 3. Praveen Prabhakar-R.K. Sharma (INWTC, Mumbai).
RS:X: 1. Jerome Kumar (AYN), 2. Manpreet Singh (AYN), 3. Kore Manoj (AYN).
RS:One: 1. Dayne Coelho (GBSA), 2. Rahul Chaudhary (INWTC, Goa), 3. Kedar Nath Tiwari (EMESC, Bhopal).
Women: Laser radial: 1. Nethra Kumanan (TNSA), 2. Ramya Saravanan (CESC, Pune), 3. Tanu Bisen (NSS, Bhopal).
49er FX: 1. Ekta Yadav-Shaila Charls (NSS, Bhopal), 2. Varsha Goutham-Sweta Shervegar (AMS Sailing Foundation), 3. Jayalakshmi Sundaravadivel-N. Aishwarya (TNSA).
