Vishnu Saravanan is considered to be one of the most talented young sailors in the country. The 19-year-old still remembers missing out on a place at the 2014 Asiad in the Optimist class. Now, representing Army Yachting Node (Mumbai), Vishnu doesn’t want to take a chance and is keen to cement his place for the Jakarta Games.
Taking part in the laser standard section, Vishnu, who finished first on the opening day, reinforced his potential by emerging first and second in Race 2 and Race 3 on Thursday at the selection trials. Overall, Vishnu is in first place followed by Upamanyu Datta.
TN Sailing Association pair of K.C. Ganapathi and Varun Thakkar proved its dominance in the 49er class by winning its third straight race.
In the first race of the laser standard, Vishnu had a pretty bad start and was in third place in the first windward mark behind Gitesh and Mohit Saini. Slowly narrowing the gap in the first downwind mark, Vishnu raced past the two in the second upwind.
I the second race, he was second behind Mohit in the windward mark, but by the time the second upwind came, Upamanyu, who was behind Vishnu and Mohit, overtook the two to emerge first. The conditions were good for sailing as the winds measured between 13 and 18 knots and the swells raising up to 1.5m.
The results (overall):
Laser standard: 1. Vishnu Saravanan (AYN, Mumbai), 2. Upamanyu Dutta (INWTC, Mumbai), 3. Gitesh (AYN0). Laser 4.7: Govind Bairagi (NSS, Bhopal), 2. Aniketh Rajaram (TNSA), 3. Satish Yadav (NSS, Bhopal); 470: 1. Ayaz Shaikh-Mahesh Yadav (AYN, Mumbai), 2. Praveen Prabhakar-R.K. Sharma (INWTC, Mumbai), 3. Virender Singh-Navneet Vishwakarma (INWTC, Mumbai). RS One: Dayne Coelho (GBSA), 2. Rahul Chaudhary (INWTC, Goa), 3. Russel Thomas Lobo (GYA). 49er: K.C. Ganapathi-Varun Thakkar (TNSA), 2. Sandeep Jain-Munna Pandit (AYN), 3. Brijraj Verma-Pankaj Kumar (INWTC, Mumbai). 49erFX: 1. Ekta Yadav-Shaila Charls (NSS, Bhopal), 2. Jayalakshmi-Sundaravadivel-N. Aishwarya (TNSA), 3. Varsha Gautham-S. Sweta (AMS Sailing Foundation).
RS:X: 1. Jerome Kumar (AYN), 2. Kore Manoj (AYN), 3. Manpreet Singh (AYN).
Optimist: 1. Aashish Vishwakarma (NSS, Bhopal), 2. R. Neelanand (TNSA), 3. K.S. Anirudh (TNSA).
