— PHOTO: P.V. Sivakumar

DOMINATING SHOW: Rajesh Choudhary, who learnt his trade at Hussainsagar, continued to hold sway in the Laser Radial Rig.

Hyderabad: With very heavy winds blowing across in the morning session, the two leading contenders in the Laser Standard category, namely V. Harihara and N.S. Johal, both from the Army Yachting Node, fought it out and shared the honours at the end of the day in the Laser sailing National championships at the Hussainsagar lake on Wednesday.

The first race of the day was the fifth race of the Laser Standard fleet.

The conditions were difficult as the wind speed ranged between 12 and 18 knots and gusted up to 25 knots in sudden bursts.

It also changed direction frequently by five to 10 degrees thus making things that much more difficult even for the experienced sailors. The inexperienced were often left floundering and their boats capsized.

However, the two most experienced sailors, Harihara and Johal, won one contest each in back-to-back races.

Fine performances

In the Laser 4.7 class there were two more fine performances by Navin Shirodkar, who now seems well on the way to a title win. He won both races held on Wednesday.

To the credit of the youngsters sailing in the Laser 4.7 class, not a single competitor gave up.

In the afternoon session the wind was a little less and Rajesh Choudhary continued to dominate the Radial fleet. Rajesh, who learnt his sailing at Hussainsagar, romped home in both the races.

He said later that he has his target set on a gold medal in the forthcoming Doha Asian Games and is using this meet as a good occasion to practice his skills.

Sadanandan injured

The strong winds had many of the younger sailors in trouble and Sooraj Sadanandan of TNSA was injured when he was hit by the `boom' of his boat as he attempted to make a quick turn.

The lad was rushed to hospital where he was given stitches to close the wound.

The results:

Laser Standard: Fifth race: 1. V. Harihara (AYN) 55m 16s; 2. N.S. Johal (AYN) 55m 41s; 3. Jasveer Singh (AYN) 56m.0s. Sixth race: 1. Johal 51m 03s; 2. Harihara 53m 46s; 3. Rajesh Kumar (AYN) 55m 10s.

Laser 4.7: Fifth race: 1. Navin Shirodkar (NDA) 45m 30s; 2. Mrinalini (TNSA) 50m 0s; 3. Alekhya Sudam (SSC) 51m 33s. Sixth race: 1. Shirodkar 47m 41s; 2. Alekhya 54m 45s; 3. Mrinalini 55m 50s.

Laser Radial: Third race: 1. Rajesh Choudhary (AYN) 46m 25s; 2. Dharmendra Singh (AYN) 47m 59s; 3. B.K. Raut (AYN) 48m 18s. Fourth race: 1. Choudhary 39m 16s; 2. Raut 39m 55s; 3. P.Madhu (AYN) 39m 57s.

Mistral: Third race: 1. Ghanshyam (AYN) 27m 23s; 2. R. Saravanan (AYN) 28m 17s; 3. A. Tripathi (AYN) 37m 03s. Fourth race: 1. P.J. Thomas (AYN) 36m 0s; 2. A. Prakash (AYN) 37m 17s; 3. Ghanshyam 38m 18s.

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