Pallavi, Rohit shine

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI, MAY 26. Pallavi Naik of Goa Yachting Club and Rohit Ashok of Royal Madras Yachting Club injected life into the National Coastal Optimist sailing championship by pushing the front runners to lower spots at the Chennai harbour here on Saturday, a better day in terms of sea and wind conditions.

The organisers, in fact looked pretty excited over the incredible success of 12-year-old Rohit Ashok, a student of The School KFI, Besant Nagar, who won two races comfortably. Rohit who has just two years of experience, recorded a big lead in the second race which he won easily, and in the third race he made the lead even bigger, surprising his club members.

Both Pallavi and Rohit outshone Ninad Mayekar of Mumbai (who incidentally had a bad day, not finishing in the first three places in any of the races), Salil Sabir of Goa and Shilpa Oberoi of Mumbai, who dominated the races in the first two days. Ninad had been consistently doing well, but on a fairly good day he failed to make it. Now these sailers have to make up on Sunday to capture the title. Xerxes Bamboat of Colaba Sailing Club surprised everyone by finishing fourth in the first race. For his age-he was the youngest of the lot-it was a creditable show.

For safety reasons the organising committee decided not to send in boats that were damaged in the previous races. Two boats had to be pulled out during the first race owing to equipment failure. The prevailing wind condition in the beginning was about three to five knots, a dull one for the sailers. But the wind picked up later during the second race. Moderate sea swell prevailed during the first two contests.

Rohit Singh of Sea Cadets (Mumbai), Salil Sabir of Goa, Ritesh Kank of Mumbai and Aarti Pawar, also of Mumbai, had an excellent start in the first race. But at the windward mark, Pallavi Naik and Shilpa Oberoi rounded first and second, respectively. While the 14-year-old Pallavi maintained the lead to take the top spot, Shilpa was unable to hang on and slipped as Rohit Singh surged ahead to take the second place. Shilpa was unlucky to be third.

lThe results: sixth race: 1. Pallavi Naik (Goa) 2. Rohit Singh (Sea Cadet, Mumbai) 3. Shilpa Oberoi (Sea Cadet, Mumbai)

Seventh race: 1. Rohit Ashok (RMYC, Chennai) 2. Chaitanya Chowgule (Goa) 3. Abhimanyu Nityanand (RMYC, Chennai).

Eighth race: 1. Rohit Ashok (Chennai) 2. Salil Sabir (Goa) 3. Deepak Rex (RMYC, Chennai).

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