Laser National sailing: Radial class set for tight finish; Vir excels in Laser 4.7

SEEKING ADVICE: Dilip Kumar of EMESA having a chat with his coach and former international sailor Rajesh Choudhary at the Hussainsagar lake in Hyderabad on Thursday. Photo: K. Ramesh Babu

A tough fight for the top spot is developing in the Radial class competition of the Laser National sailing championship at the Hussainsagar lake.

On Thursday, each race had a different winner and every race was well contested.

In the Standard class Dharmender Singh of AYN won two races and Jasveer Singh won the third. In the Laser 4.7 class Vir Menon of the Royal Madras Yacht Club won all the races to emerge as a clear leader in the fleet.

In the first race of the day in the Radial class, which was the seventh of the series, the wind was at 12 knots but began picking up till it was recorded at 18 knots. Sharif Khan took the lead initially but as the winds changed he fell back and Gaurav Randhawa took over and went on to win.

In the eighth race (which was shortened by one leg), newcomer A. Srinu of EMESC Bhopal led from the start and held on to the lead for the first three legs. But later the more experienced Harpreet came first followed by that irrepressible youngster Vir Menon. Srinu finally had to be content with the 10th spot.

In the ninth race the wind began dropping and shifting and posed problems for the novices. Only Dilip Kumar of EMESA read the conditions correctly and led from the start to end up as the winner.

The results:

Laser Standard class:

Fourth race: 1. Dharmender Singh (AYN), 2. Jasveer Singh (AYN), 3. Gurjeet Singh (AYN), 4. Gajender Singh (AYN), 5. B. Mohapatra (AYN).

Fifth race: 1. Dharmender Singh (AYN), 2. Gajender Singh (AYN), 3. B. Mohapatra (AYN), 4. Jasveer Singh (AYN), 5. Gurjeet Singh (AYN).

Sixth race: 1. Jasveer Singh (AYN), 2. Gajender Singh (AYN), Ramesh Kumar (AYN), 4. Gurjeet Singh (AYN), 5. Gitesh Kumar (AYN).

Laser Radial class:

Seventh race: 1. Gaurav Randhawa (INWTC Mumbai), 2. Sharif Khan (AYN), 3. Mujahid Khan (AYN), 4. Dilip Kumar (EMEA), 5. Virender Singh (AYN).

Eighth race: 1. Harpreet Singh (AYN), 2. Vir Menon (RMYC), 3. Dilip Kumar (EMESA), 4. Sharif Khan (AYN), 5. K.K. Pandey (AYN).

Ninth race: 1. Dilip Kumar (EMESA), 2. Sharif Khan (AYN), 3. Harpreet Singh (AYN), 4. Veer Singh Kaurav (EMESA), 5. Gaurav Randhawa (INWTC).

Laser 4.7 class:Fourth race: 1. Vir Menon (RMYC), 2. Ravindhar M. (TNSA), 3. Shikhar Garg (NSS Bhopal), 4. Koteshwar Rao (EMESA), 5. Ahad Rahim (TNSA).

Fifth race: 1. Vir Menon (RMYC), 2. Ravindhar M. (TNSA), 3. Dheer Singhi (RMYC), 4. Shikhar Garg (NSS Bhopal), 5. V. Sujeesh (TNSA).

Sixth race: 1. Vir Menon (RMYC), 2. V. Sujeesh (TNSA), 3. Shikhar Garg (NSS Bhopal), 4. Ravindhar M. (TNSA), 5. Nicholas Patrick (TNSA).