Lahiri wins Telangana State Sailing Regatta C’ship title

Hyderabad : The sisters Lahiri Komaravelly and Deekshita Komaravelly finally finished on tie at 15 points each but the younger and lighter Lahiri won 5 races and her sibling only 4 pipping Deekshita to clinch the gold and ultimately the Telangana State Sub Junior Sailing Championship.

Till Friday, Deekshita was leading by just one point and all she had to do was keep her sister behind which she did in the 9th race but faltered in the 10th race coming 3rd with Govardhan Pallara squeezing into second place giving Lahiri the edge and the coveted gold

The last two races were sailed in very light winds and the regatta closed with just 10 races due to no wind giving Lahiri an edge

Among the boys, Banny Bongur, Vinod Dandu and Rizwan Mohammad finished in top three but significantly behind the girls overall in points.

The fleets was mixed gender and the girls displayed superlative performances winning significantly across both sub junior and junior championships beating the boys .

“Our Naavika program for girls with the tagline Dignity Through Sports has provided us with great results“, said Suheim Sheikh, President of The Yacht Club of Hyderabad, who hosted the Championships at Hussain Sagar Hyderabad

In the Junior category, Jhansi sealed comfortable 8 points and the gold even before the last days racing and wins the Junior State Champinship overall and girls gold followed by Vaishnavi Veeravamsham and Thanuja Kameshwar to bag the silver and bronze respectively. Shravan Kathravath clinched the gold in boys Junior section.

Dr.Shailaja Ramaiyer, IAS . Principal Secretary Sports and Youth Affairs graced the prize giving as chief guest. Delivering a speech after a fleet inspection, he encouraged the young sailors to do well at the forthcoming nationals and said that like Preethi Kongara represent India at the Asian Games and hopefully the Olympics.