Ernakulam seems to be a happy hunting ground for Pune’s Vishnu Saravanan. The 13-year-old Vellore-born sailor, representing CESC, won the overall title in the Meridian Homes National Inland Optimist Championship at Chathamma, near Panangad, on Monday.
It was Vishnu Saravanan’s second title here. He had won the National Coastal Optimist title at Cherai, near here, last year.
He has raced in the Junior World and Asian championships and he won the title comfortably here. He had a huge 12-point lead over Chennai girl Janaki Balachander after the penultimate day’s action and on Monday, he set out on a relaxed pace.
“Today, anyway I was clear, so I gave them (the others) a chance,” said Vishnu after the 12-race event where points from the ten best results are taken for the final ranking.
Interesting battle
There was an interesting battle for the second and third positions with TNSA’s Janaki and Mumbai RBYC’s Aryaman Dutta.
Both were tied with 40 points but Aryaman, who had won three races (including the 11th round on Monday) while the consistent Janaki had won none, finished runner-and Janaki was third.
Janaki also topped the girls list with teammate Ruqayya Nasrulla and CESC’s Ramya Saravanan finishing second and third respectively.
The Tamil Nadu Sailing Association, which had fielded 20 entries here, walked away with four of the top six overall positions.
Final placings (overall, top five): 1. Vishnu Saravanan (CESC, Pune, 29 points); 2. Aryaman Dutta (RBYC, Mumbai, 40); 3. Janaki Balachander (TNSA, Chennai, 40); 4. Vishnu Sujeesh (TNSA, 43); 5. Ruqqayya Nasrulla (TNSA, 48).
Boys: 1. Saravanan; 2. Aryaman; 3. Sujeesh. Girls: 1. Janaki; Ruqqayya; 3. Ramya Saravanan.
Special prizes:
Mahesh Balachander (TNSA, u-12 boys, best sailor), Nithya Balachander (TNSA, u-12 girls, best sailor and youngest sailor).
