The wind gods finally obliged and the Race officials were able to pull off a valid Regatta in the Telangana Junior State Sailing Championships at Hussain Sagar on Sunday
As a consequence the qualifier scores were expunged and only the finals sailed today counted turning the tables on its head with dramatically different results.
Dark horse Nitin Naik Kethavath of Nagarkurnool shocked all the top seeds by winning the overall State junior championship and the Boys Gold medal.
Nitin studies at MJPT school and his compatriot Mallesh Gadham from MJPT Wanaparthy also came in from the back and finished overall 3rd and to get the boys silver .
Amongst junior girls Lakshmi Chandram dominated with some excellent sailing to finish 2nd overall , just a pojte behind Nitin and clinched the Gold for girls followed by Lalitha Majji at Silver , both from Hyderabad
Preethi Kongari who was ahead by a significant margin at the qualifiers stage had a terrible day and was pushed down to overall 5th and a bronze amongst girls .
Jaikiran Bolli of the Swearoes also lost out to the MJPT boys despite some brilliant sailing at the qualifiers but managed to get the boys bronze
‘I am happy that the weather finally turned up and we were able to deliver a full series at least in the Junior category and we will resail the Sub Juniors after the exam schedule is over”, said Suheim Sheikh the President of the Yacht Club of Hyderabad.
The novices fleet was again shockingly dominated by the boys with Bhanuprakash again of MJPT leading followed by Kevin Raj . Brothers Saathwik and Shravan Dhoki from Hyderabad closely followed in that order. The novice girls were led by Deekshita, Rithika and Bushra all of Udbhav School Rasoolpura that has produced 10 top sailors that have represented India
The prize giving was hosted at the Yacht Club of Hyderabad and presided over by Lt.Gen KS Rao the President of the Telangana Sailing Association and a circumnavigator himself.
The three day Telangana State Junior Regatta concluded on Sunday. The first major sporting event across India to have held witnessed 56 participants competing. The Telangana Sailing Association – TSA organised it. 56 sailors registered from across 16 districts . The tournament held in three categories— Juniors, Sun-Juniors and Novices.