Reigning World and Asian O K Dinghy champion Nitin Mongia is well set to clinch the title after the seventh and penultimate race in the National Sailing Regatta off the Mumbai harbour on Thursday.
Mongia, representing hosts Indian Naval Watermanship Training Centre (INWTC), clinched the sixth race to add to his wins in the first five races and help himself to a huge lead over the rest with a tally of six penalty points.
Even his failure to finish the seventh race, won by D P Selvam of the Army Yacht Node (AYN, Mumbai), is unlikely to cost him the title unless he performs very poorly in the concluding race on Friday.
In second spot is V K Raut (AYN), with 22 penalty points.
In the Enterprise class, Nitin's brother, Ashim Mongia, leads the bunch with 13 penalty points despite not finishing on top in either the sixth or seventh race held on Thursday.
In the YAI Youth Nationals run concurrently, Ninad Mainkar and crew Prasad Shelar (AYN) are well entrenched in the top spot in the 420 class after winning both sixth and seventh races of the meet, which helped them lead the bunch with eight penalty points.
In the Laser class, where only three competitors are in the fray, Tamil Nadu Sailing Association's G Sandeep and Goa Yachting Association's Salil Sabir took the gun in the two races on Thursday.
The races were held in fairly good sailing conditions.
Third day's results:
O K Dinghy class: Race 6: 1. Nitin Mongia (Indian Naval Watermanship Training Centre, Mumbai), D P Selvam (Army Yachting Node, Mumbai), 3. K Srinivas (EME Sailing Association, Secunderabad).
Race 7: 1. D P Selvam, 2. V K Raut (AYN, Mumbai), 3. S Purshottam (EME SA, Bhopal).
Enterprise class: Race 6: 1. Dharmendra Singh/Joji Joseph (Corps of Engineers Training Centre, Pune), 2. N S Yadav/G L Yadav (INWTC), 3. S S Chauhan/S Sharma (INWTC).
Race 7: 1. S S Chauhan/S Sharma (INWTC), 2. Ashim Mongia/Amit Arvind (INWTC), 3. N S Yadav/G L Yadav (INWTC).
Youth Nationals: 420 Class (Open): Race 6: 1. Ninad Mainkar/P Shelar (AYN, Mumbai), 2. Pallavi Naik/Rohini Rao (Goa Yachting Association), 3. Deepak Premkumar/Siddharth Varman (Tamil Nadu SA).
Race 7: 1. Mainkar/Shelar, 2. Premkumar/Varman, 3. Pallavi/Rohini.
Laser Class: Race 6: 1. G Sandeep (TNSA), 2. Ajay Rao (TNSA), 3. Salil Sabir (GYA).
Race 7: 1. Sabir, 2. Ajay Rau.
