PANJIM: All eyes were on the RS: One Youth category on Day 4 of the All India Board Sailing Championship organised by the Goa Yachting Association (GYA) and Volvo Penta, at the Dolphin Adventure Sports Centre, Hawaii Beach, Dona Paula, on Sunday.
In the first race, Russel was off to a great start, but though she was far behind Katya persistently gave chase and finished just seconds behind him.
In the second race, Katya was off to a fantastic start and left Russel behind from start to finish. This meant they were tied on points. The tie-breaker is which one has more wins. Even here, they were equal.
The second tie breaker is who wins the last race. So Katya, won the RS:One Youth Men’s category. She won on a technicality, but this only proves that sailing is one of the only sports in which men and women can compete on a genuinely equal basis.
In the remaining categories, the leaders were pretty much decided, so both Raunak Pai and Rhea Fernandes sat out the last two races, to give others a chance to get a gun.
David Estibeiro of Goa won both races to bag the championship in the Raceboard Youth class, with Dillish Rao second and Narayan Munda (both Orissa) third. Raunaq Pai of Goa was first in Raceboard Men, with Cany Rodrigues (Goa) second and Sunil Yadav of DSCC Bhopal third.
Rhea Fernandes was first in Raceboard Women, with Megan Fernandes second, followed by Neha Correia (all Goa).
Commandant of the Naval War College Rear Admiral Monty Khanna gave away the prizes to the winners. Megan Fernandes bagged the prize for Most Promising Windsurfer.
