Indian sailors steal show at 2022 Optimist Asian and Oceanian Championship
Dec 18, 2022
Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], December 18: India's young sailors stole the show late on the second day of the 2022 Optimist Asian and Oceanian Championship here at the Girgaum Chowpatty in Mumbai.
In the fourth and fifth fleet qualification races, India's sailors shone through with excellent returns. The wind speed for both races late on Friday was around four to five knots which meant that the conditions were excellent.
India's hero in the fourth race was the fiesty girl Thanuja Kameswar finished on top in the Blue fleet with Eklavya Batham in third place and another girl Divyanshi Mishra in tenth place. The Yellow Fleet saw another Indian Shashank Batham finishing in seventh place.
The top performers in the Blue Fleet in the fourth race apart from the Indians were: Shogo Iwanami (Japan, second place, boy), Torn Rattana (Thailand, fourth place, boy) and Isabel Veiga Thiesfeldt (USA, fifth place, girl). The best performing sailors in the Yellow Fleet in the fourth race were: Patcharaphan Ongkaloy (Thailand, first, girl), Emmanuel Lagrange (Belgium, second, boy), Nicole Lim (Singapore, third, girl), Oh Eitan (Singapore, fourth, boy) and Shion Suzuki (Japan, fifth, girl)
In the fifth qualifying race too, the Indians did well. India's Somya Patel finished eighth in the blue fleet, whereas Divyanshi Mishra retained her tenth position. Shashank Batham moved up five places to the second spot in the yellow fleet.
Overall, in the fifth race, Blue Fleet's top performers were Ethan Chia (Singapore, first, boy), Isabel Veiga Thiesfeldt (USA, second, girl), Chanatip Tongglum (Thailand, third, boy), Amos Tham (Singapore, fourth, boy), Jirathip Mutiphan (Thailand, fifth, boy).
In the yellow fleet, the top performers apart from India's Batham were: Singapore's Nicole Lim in the top spot followed by Japanese pair Shion Suzuki in third and Miyu Arimoto in the fourth spot. The fifth spot was claimed by Belgium's Emmanuel Lagrange.
Three black flags were raced in the fifth race for the following sailors: Taro Nakazawa (Japan, boy), Jacob Artof (USA, boy) and Nikil Satya Nanayakkara (Sri Lanka, boy)
Team races began on Saturday with 16 sides competing for top honours. Sailing at 2022 Asian and Oceanian Championship continues until Monday 19 December.
