Smooth sailing for Tarapore-Kapila

Experience and international exposure does matter a lot, as was proved by three-time Olympian and Asian Games gold medallist Farokh Tarapore while dominating the Provogue 420 Class National Sailing Championships at the H2O Sports Complex, Chowpatty, in Mumbai, on Thursday.

Tarapore and crew Vikas Kapila won both the third and fourth races on Thursday and having finished second in the first and second races, they now lead comfortably with six points.

Their closest rivals are Sanjeev Chauhan and Rajesh Dhulaji, who finished fourth in both races and have 24 points. Less than two points behind, in third position are Mehul Ashar and Ashpak Shaikh, who finished the third and fourth races in sixth and third place respectively.

"The morning race was a little tough as we had to fight to come up from being sixth on the first upwind leg,'' said Tarapore. "The evening race was satisfying because the wind held throughout and it was blowing too."

Tarapore, a master on the 470 Class, is relatively new to the 420, but the manner in which he piloted his craft to victory proved that he had mastered the 420 Class in a short period.

The Jani sisters, Riddhi and Aditi struck a fine rhythm on Thursday to win both the races. Though there are five entrants in this historic first separate championship for the women, there are only four pairs taking part.

Riddhi and Aditi, who finished fifth at the Asian sailing championships in Busan earlier this year generated good speed that saw them zip away to the finish line with quite a sizeable lead.

However, they trail Neeta Angre and Aarti Pawar, winners of the 1st and 2nd races on Wednesday, in the overall tally by a slender 2.7 points.

Results:

Men:
3rd race: 1. Farokh Tarapore-Vikas Kapila; 2. Vincent Peter-Umesh Sharma; 3. Naresh Yadav-Girdhari Lal Yadav; 4. Sanjeev Chauhan-Rajesh Dhulaji; 5. Ayaz Shaikh-Sandeep Jain.

4th race: 1. Tarapore-Kapila; 2. Shaikh-Jain; 3. Mehul Ashar-Ashpak Shaikh; 4. Chauhan-Dhulaji; 5. Dharmendar Singh-K Raghu.

Overall (race positions in brackets, without discards): 1. Tarapore-Kapila (2,2,1,1) 6 points; 2. Chauhan-Dhulaji (1,4,4,4) 24; 3. Ashar-Shaikh (4,1,6,3) 25.4; 4. Ayaz-Jain (7,3,5,2) 31.7; 5. Naresh Yadav-Girdhari Lal Yadav (5,7,3,did not start) and Dharmendar-Raghu (3, on course side, 7,5) 45.7.

Women:
3rd race: 1. Riddhi and Aditi Jani; 2. Neeta Angre-Aarti Pawar; 3. Niloufer Jamal-Rohini Rau.

4th race: Riddhi-Aditi; 2. Angre-Pawar; 3. Jamal-Rau.

Overall (race positions in brackets, without discards) 1. Angre-Pawar (1,1,2,2) 6; 2. Riddhi-Aditi (2,3,1,1) 8.7; 3. Niloufer-Rohini 20.1.