Team Chennai’s young skipper Abhimanyu Panwar and his crew of Chinna Reddy and Smita Kothuri shocked the favourites, Team Goa and Team Mumbai, skippered by the experienced Mahesh Ramchandran and Nitin Mongia, in the Omega class competitions on the first day of the Deloitte Monsoon Regatta at the Hussainsagar lake on Tuesday.
Chennai leads with three wins and two second-place finishes after seven races. Mahesh followed closely with three wins and two third places. The sailors had to overcome wildly varying winds, ranging from ‘dead’ to 27 knots, on the first day.
There was excitement when a sudden squall hit the racers during the trailing end of the seventh race when Mongia was in the lead. All three trailing boats, including those of Panwar and Mahesh capsized, leaving Mongia to proceed at full speed to the finish line.
ADVERTISEMENT
The Topper national fleet was divided into two — A and B — for the eliminations into the Gold and Silver fleets.
Defending champion Vishnu Sujeesh of Chennai won all his four races in the Fleet A eliminations, pretty much guaranteeing him a place in the Gold Fleet. M. Prabhakar of Telangana Sports Authority lies in the second spot.
ADVERTISEMENT
Only two races of Fleet B were gone through before the squall hit, and all races were cancelled thereafter. Rishab Nayar of Silver Oaks School is at the top of Fleet B, followed by Koteshwar of Telangana SA.
The results:
Omega Class: 1. Chennai 13 penalty points, 2. Goa 17, 3. Mumbai 19.
Topper Class: Fleet A: 1. Vishnu Sujeesh 3, 2. M. Prabhakar 8, 3. A. Nagarjuna 9.
Fleet B: 1. Rishab Nayar 5, 2. Koteshwar 6, 3. Nikhil Kumar 6.