Team Goa, captained by Mahesh Ramachandran, edged past Team Chennai whose skipper, the young Abhimanyu Panwar, was not able to match the more experienced Mahesh on the second day of the Omega class competitions at the Deloitte Monsoon Regatta here on Wednesday.
Lighter wind conditions prevailed during most of the day with a pleasant breeze in the morning session and light seven knots during the afternoon’s races.
Former Laser class national champion Mahesh out-manoeuvred the other teams using his experience of more than two decades in the sport. With just five races to go, the battle for the title is heating up. Mumbai, captained by the experienced Nitin Mongia, is far behind the leaders.
In the Topper Nationals, defending champion Vishnu Sujeesh of Chennai and compatriot Dheer Singhi tied for the top spot in the eliminations followed by Rishab Nayar, M. Prabhakar and Tanishq Desai, all of Hyderabad.
Nikhil Kumar of Hyderabad was disqualified, following a protest lodged by Tanishq Desai. As a result Nikhil has been relegated to the Silver fleet. However, he seems to be comfortably perched among the top ranks given the relative inexperience of the rest in the Silver fleet.
The results: Omega Class nationals fleet racing: Goa: 18 penalty points, Chennai 19, Hyderabad 54.
Topper class nationals: Dheer Singhi 9, Vishnu Sujeesh 11, Rajnikant Ragi 13.
