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 At
a function held at the Seafarer's Club, the prizes for the SDAT-TNSA
Southern Regional Optimist Sailing Championships 2007 were given
away by the Commodore of the RMYC, Navaz Currimbhoy, while the
winners of the National Inland Optimist Sailing Championships 2007
held last week in Bhopal were felicitated by the Chief Coach of TNSA,
Munna Jamal.
The optimist class of dinghy is an ISAF (International Sailing
Federation) class for children below the age of 16. This was the
first regional sailing championships held in the country. It was
contested mainly between the sailors of the TNSA and the RMYC, with
the winner and first runner-up both being girls, namely Nivedita
Verman of TNSA, who won both the STP Trophy for best sailor and Pio
Trophy for best girl sailor, while Zephra Currimbhoy of RMYC, was
the second runner-up and Varun Thakkar from the TNSA picked up the
bronze. K Ganapathy of TNSA won the Viking Trophy for best sailor
under-12.
In the team event, it was the team of Tanmay,
Ganapathy and Nivedita which won the championship and the Swift
Trophy.
Commodore Ashok Thakkar of the TNSA highlighted
the focus of the TNSA in promoting the sport in the country. This
enthusiasm has ensured that the TNSA is the only body in the sport
which has been affiliated to the Tamil Nadu Olympic Association.
At Bhopal, TNSA fielded the largest contingent of
sailors at the event, had its own Container to transport the boats,
and still had a few sailors left over who could not participate
because of lack of boats as there was a restriction on usage of
imported boats for this event. However, this clause would become
redundant next year and the TNSA hopes to field more than 30 sailors
at Goa in the Coastal National Sailing Championships in May 2008.
 At
the championships in Bhopal, TNSA had a rich haul of medals and
trophies. TNSA also cornered Rs 16,000 out of the Rs 18,000 given
away as cash awards.
TNSA had the distinction of taking the first
three positions in the championships - Nishanth Chandrashekar,
National Champion, Hussein Bhavnagarvala, first runner-up, and
Ganapathy, second runner-up; the girls championship - Nivedita
Verman; the under-12 champion - Ganapathy and the under-10 girls
category - Varsha Gautam, leaving just the under-10 boys title for
the hosts to take. The youngest contestant was Nicholas Patrick who
was all of eight years and finished 23rd in a fleet of 43 boats.
 The
National Inland Optimist Sailing Champioships 2007 were also the
selection trials in the Optimist class for the South Asian Yachting
Regatta to be held at CMYC (Ceylon Motor Yacht Club) Indibedde,
Moratumulla, Moratuwa, Bolgoda Lake from December 26 to 31. The
other classes being raced are the Enterprise and the Laser 4.7 and
the TNSA hopes to field some of its 4.7 sailors too for the
championships, said Mushtaqh Ali, honorary secretary, Tamil Nadu
Sailing Association.
R Rangaraj
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