The Hindu : Sport : Indians keep lead

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Oct 18, 2007
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Sport

Indians keep lead

Nandakumar Marar

— Photo: Vivek Bendre

IN THE FRONT: Indian sailors R. Mahesh and Girdharilal Yadav won a race on Wednesday and remained in lead.

MUMBAI: Indian sailors R. Mahesh and Girdharilal Yadav remained in the forefront at the end of a tough second day’s sailing at the CISM Military World Games.

After the end of five races, a victory and two fourth positions helped the two lead with 11 points ahead of Finland (16) and Spain (19) at the Indian Naval Watermanship Training Centre, Colaba, on Wednesday.

France improves

After a disqualification on the opening day, France recovered to win two races and followed it up with a third position to vault from overnight 16th place to sixth.

Nicolas Pauchet/Besson Billy expressed disappointment at the disqualification. "The USA boat was inching close and I put out my hand to warn them, the jury thought I had touched the other boat, hence we were disqualified," said Besson.

Pauchet said they were getting a hang of waters and currents off the Mumbai coastline. “The waters are heavy with oil, the currents are strong but we are getting used to it," he said.

Spain, which had two firsts on the first day, had a seventh, fifth and third places on day two.

Faulty rudder

India’s fourth place in the first race happened due to fault in the rudder but Mahesh/Girdharilal sailed smoothly in the second.

They then suffered a 720-penalty and a slow start saw the duo settle for the fourth place, behind Spain, in the third race of the day. The Indians have filed an appeal to the jury for a review of the points, reasoning that rudder problem was not their fault.

The positions (after five races): 1. India (R. Mahesh & Girdharilal Yadav) 11 points, 2. Finland (Anttila Teemu & Tamminem Sami) 16, 3. Spain (Jose Medina Ruiz & Francisco Soto Loureiro) 19, 4. Germany (Lucas Zellmer & Heiko Seelig) 34, 5. Russia (Andrey Kiriljuk & Maksim Semerhanov) 34.

6. France (Nicolas Pauchet & Besson Billy) 37, 7. Poland (Mysliweic Wojoceich & Kaminski Jremeusr) 40, 8. Greece (Vasilas Georgios & Mitakis Evangelos) 47, 9. Norway (Bratbak Pal & Johansen Anders) 47, 10. Turkey (Selim Kakis & Koroglu Ahmet) 48.

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