PANAJI
The top seeds sailed through on the concluding day of the Goa International Sailing Week conducted by the Goa Yachting Association (GYA) on Sunday.
Local star Dayne Coelho of GYA maintained his clean slate and comprehensively won gold medal in the Olympic windsurfing class RS:X. In the other Olympic category, the Laser Standard, favourite Upamanyu Dutta of INWTC Mumbai warded off EMESA’s Deelip Kumar’s challenge to retain his title. Both Upamanyu and Dayne are India’s rising stars who have been picked by the Yachting Association of India (YAI) to train and prepare for the forthcoming Asian Games and the Olympics 2020.
The Hobie 16 fleet too saw favourites Kaushal Kumar and Girish M of AWSA Hyderabad defend their top rank status with a dominating display. However, there was some disappointment for the young Goan sailboarder talent Avelino Fernandes who did not race on Sunday on account of equipment damage to relinquish his title lead in the Techno 293 category.
In action at the Calangute-Baga beach stretch, veteran Philippe Dartnell won the kiteboard event.
