Mumbai’s Upamanyu emerges Laser champ

 

by Shrutee K/DNS

Mumbai’s Upamanyu Dutta, representing, INWTC, emerged a convincing champion in the Laser Standard Class of the Goa International Sailing Week (GISW) for the vClusive Cup at Cidade de Goa, Vainguinim Beach and Dolphin Adventure Sports, Hawaii Beach, Dona Paula.

Upmanayu, who is easily the country’s most talented young sailor, dominated the class over the first three days and enjoyed an unassailable lead over his rivals and thus had the luxury of not sailing on the final day. His tally of 13 points, indicated his supremacy over second placed Deelip Kumar (27 pts) and third placed Israj Ali (28 pts), both representing EMESA. In sailing a point indicates the position you finish the race in, so the higher the finish position means lesser the points.

Upamanyu, who is studying engineering at Viterbi College at University of Southern California, had flown in from Los Angeles to participate in the V exclusive championship.

The last two races were deciders for the second place, as EMESA's Israj Ali failed to overtake Deelip Kumar. Israj won Race 11, but was beaten to second place by Himanshu Yadav of INSA. Goa's Ajay Patel and Guru Nath sailed out of their skins to take second place in both races, to beat AWSA's Indramani Yadav and Navven Vashist by a solitary point and take second place overall in Hobie Cats. This is the very first time that a team from Goa has taken a podium position in the glamorous Hobie Cat class.

RS:X windsurfing champ Maheshwar Padham took it easy today, sitting in third place as INSA's Rahul Choudhary and EMESA's Kamlapati Ojha slugged it out, with the former prevailing by just one point.

Racing in the light morning winds did not make life any easier for the high-profile event Jury headed by Brig Jagsdish Singh (Retd), which comprised YAI's Director of Training Capt Tribhuvan Jaiswal, Laser Class Association of India Gen Secretary Lt Col Bhuvan Khare, Arjun Pradipak and Goa Yachting Association Gen Secretary Siddharth Satardekar, which had to hear a number of protests before the results were declared.