Ashim-Mahesh make impressive sailing

Ashim-Mahesh make impressive sailing
Vinay Nayudu

Mumbai, May 10: Fine summer afternoons make ideal conditions for sailing. But the same is not an easy task when it comes to competitions. The fact was endorsed by the experienced duo of Ashim Mongia and R Mahesh, who used both the weather and skills to great effect, to maintain their impressive run in the Enterprise class of the National Sailing Championship here on Wednesday.

Venturing into the Mumbai harbour off Naval Sailing Club on the second day, Ashim and Mahesh finished first and second respectively in the two races that were run, one after the other. Having topped the first race on Tuesday, the pair is now sitting pretty. With four more to go and one bad race to be eliminated in considering the final points tally, Ashim and Mahesh seem to be well in contention.

It was no smooth sailing, however, for veteran team and challengers Farokh Tarapore and Pushpendra Garg, who had a dismal outing finishing second and fourth respectively. Having ended as runners-up in the first race, they now have a lot of ground to cover and that looks tough.

Ashim and Mahesh scored a cakewalk win in the second race (the first of the day) using the good start to the maximum. But it was in the second where their start was poor. Realising well that Tarapore and Garg were close behind, Ashim and Mahesh chose to stay put and were happy in maintaining the second position. They didn't want to take chances else Tarapore and Garg would have gained advantage, which in the long run could be crucial.

Revealing the tactics after the races, the duo said, ``In the second race we had a bad start and then with Tarapore and Garg behind it was always better to keep them at bay and that's what we did.''

About the future, Ashim, as always, was cautious stating, ``The competition is still wide open and we still have four more races to go.''

Seasoned sailor Tarapore, who has returned to the waters after a three-year hiatus, looked worried and minced no words in declaring, ``We have problems in communication (between him and his partner Garg). It's something we have to get used to -- sailing together.''

About their chances he said, ``we now have to try and win the fourth race, that's the only way to go.'' He, however, sounded optimistic adding, ``Tommorrow will be a new day.''

In the Seabird class Rohit Pardesi and team strengthened its position winning both the races of the day. They were placed second in the first race on Day One.

In the Cadet class, the pair of S Jain and A Patkar continued its winning run. They have now made it three-in-a-row.

Sagar Padalkar was the winner of the second Optimist class race but slipped to the fourth spot in the third which was won by Nikhil Ashok.

The championships mark the 40th year of Yatching Association of India and are partly sponsored by Maersk International.

Results: Enterprise (Race II): 1. Ashim Mongia-R Mahesh 2. Farokh Tarapore-Pushpendra Garg 3. Dharmendra Singh-J Joseph 4. Gautam Dutta- Rajesh Chaudhary 5. Nitin Mongia-Girdharilal Yadav

Race III: 1. Nitin Mongia-Girdharilal Yadav 2. Ashim Mongia-R Mahesh 3. Sanjeev Chauhan-R Dhulaji 4. Farokh Tarapore-Pushpendra Garg 5. Naresh Yadav-Jitendra Rami

Seabird (Race II): 1. Rohit Pardesi-K D'Souza-A Zazam 2. Nilay Patil-Sushant Mhatre-Vaibhav Sarpotdar 3. Kim Sabir-Cesar Menezes-Atish Fernandes 4. Sevi Singh-Bakhtyar Vazifdar-Rajesh Chauhan 5. Binayak Majhi-MP Dubey-S Saini

Race III: 1. Rohit Pardesi-K D'Souza-A Zazam 2. Kim Sabir-Cesar Menezes- Atish Fernandes 3. SK Kanwar-Anil Das-S Shaji 4. Nilay Patil-Sushant Mhatre-Vaibhav Sarpotdar 5. Binayak Majhi-MP Dubey-S Saini

Cadet (Race II): 1. S Jain-A Parkar 2. S Shaikh-D Nair 3. A Shaikh-K Bhatt 4. D Satpute-P Shelar 5. D Kazi-A Mehta

Race III: 1. S Jain-A Parkar 2. A Shaikh-K Bhatt 3. S Shaikh-D Nair 4. S Azad-Y Lad 5. D Kazi-A Mehta

Optimist (Race II): 1. Sagar Padalkar 2. Niloufer Jamal 3. Rohit Ashok 4. Aarti Pawar 5. Mithun Nahak

Race III: 1. Nikhil Ashok 2. Salil Sabir 3. Ninad Mayekar 4. Sagar Padalkar 5. Devendra Kasarkod.