Asian Games bronze medalists KC Ganapathy and Varun Thakkar posted three podium finishes on Monday to put themselves in line to secure the one Olympic berth available in the Skiff 49er class in the Mussanah Open Sailing Championships being held in the Gulf of Oman off the Millennium Resort in Mussanah, 130km from Muscat.
The Indian duo hit a purple patch on the third day in the regatta, which is scheduled to end on Thursday. It claimed the third place in the day’s opening race and went on make its next start a winning one before closing with a second place. It has now claimed five podium finishes, at least one more than any other team.
After discarding the points from the worst of its nine races, the Indian pair (36 points) hold a six-point lead over South Africa’s Benjamin Talbot Daniel and Alex Burger and have a 12-point advantage over the nearest Asian rival, China’s Hong Wei and Chao Xiang. The race managers aim to complete 15 races before holding the medal race for the top 10 boats.
Nethra Kumanan won both races in the Laser Radial class on Monday to consolidate her place at the top of the table with 7 points. Ramya Saravanan also remained in the hunt by being third with 20 points after six races but she will be aware that a pair of Hong Kong sailors, Stephanie Norton (21) and Nancy Highfield (24), are closing in.
Vishnu Saravanan’s 10th place in the day’s second race in the Laser Standard class meant that he could not stop Thailand’s Keerati Bualong (19 points) from reclaiming the second spot behind Singapore’s Ryan Lo Jun Han (12). Riding on a third-place finish in the day’s first race, Vishnu Saravanan had slipped into the second place in an event that offers two Olympic berths.
The results (Indian placings with nett scores after three days):
Laser Standard (Six races, one discard shown in bold): 3. Vishnu Saravanan 22 (3, 11, 2, 4, 3, 10); 7. Upamanyu Dutta 36 (6, 5, 13, 11, 8, 7); 9. Mohit Saini 41 (14, 9, 14, 5, 5, 8); 16. Gitesh 68 (13, 19, 11, 21DSQ, 14, 11). 19. Ram Milan Yadav 85 (12, 17, 19, 18, 20, 19).
Laser Radial (Six races, one discard shown in bold): 1. Nethra Kumanan 7 (2, 7, 1, 2 1, 1); 3. Ramya Saravanan 20 (13 DSQ, 3, 5, 4, 3, 5); 7. Harshita Tomar 28 (4 2, 9, 7, 7, 8); 12. Jayalakshmi Sundaravadivel 55 (11, 10, 12, 11, 12, 11).
Skiff 49er (Nine races, one discard shown in bold): 1. KC Ganapathy and Varun Thakkar 26 points (5, 10, 3, 4, 5, 3, 3, 1, 2); 9. Prince Kurisinkal Noble and Manu Francis 58 (2, 11, 13, 3, 15 DNF, 10, 7, 6, 6); 12. Sandip Jain and Munna Pandit 75 (12, 13, 4, 15UFD, 11, 4, 13, 10, 8).
Skiff 49er FX (Nine races, one discard shown in bold): 4. Ekta Yadav and Ritika Dangi 27 points (3, 4, 1, 4, 4, 3, 4, 4, 5).
Windsurfer RS:X (Men) (Seven races, one discard shown in bold): 5. Jerome Kumar Savarimuthu 29 points (11, 9, 6, 4, 4, 3, 3); 7. Ebad Ali 33 (3, 7, 4, 10, 6, 8, 5).
Windsurfer RS: X (Women) (Six races, one discard shown in bold): 3. Ishwarya Ganesh 15 points (2, 3, 3, 4 DNF, 4 NSC, 3).
Image: KC Ganapathy & Varun Thakkar (Courtesy: GanaVarunSailing, Instagram)
