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27 Feb 2010

Sail The Gulf - Gold To India

Eight nations contested this year's Sail The Gulf Regatta in Doha, Qatar from 16-20 February 2010. Many competitors were from the geographic region, including Pakistan, Qatar, Brunei and Kuwait, whilst sailors from further afield came from India, Hungary, Sudan and Canada.

From the outset two teams were contesting for the gold and silver medal positions, with Pushparajan Muttu and Narendra Singhrajput (IND) and Imre Varadi and Aron Sierke (HUN) in their own closely fought points battle at the front of the fleet.

Both teams have been competing on the international circuit, with a great result being the 12 for Muttu and Singhrajput at last year's Rolex Miami OCR. The pair sit at 158 on the ISAF Sailing World Rankings. Varadi and Sierke were seen at most of the 470 Championships in 2009, scoring a 56 at the 2009 470 European Championships in Austria, 26 at the Junior 470 World Championships and 22 at the Junior 470 European Championships and hold a position of 128 on the ISAF Sailing World Rankings.

However, it was Muttu and Singhrajput who became the first ones to guarantee themselves a victory on the penultimate day after after securing a win and a second position. Having asserted their supremacy with a clean sweep of six races on the first two days, they only needed one more win from the next four races to shut the door on the chasing Hungarian team.

And Muttu was delighted to have succeeded in his mission. “We went out to sea today with a thought not to take any risk and I’m very happy everything panned out just as we had planned,” Muttu said after returning to the clubhouse.

Now his next aim will be to emulate this victory at next month’s Asian Championship in Guangzhou, China.

“It’s a great boost before we head out to China. I hope to carry this form into the next month,” said the 30-year-old Mumbai sailor.

Pakistan’s Zia Ur Rehman and Tahir Iqbal held onto their overnight third place on 21 points.

But it was a Championship of disappointment for Qatar as Amro Yosry and his crew Fahad al-Malki who failed to make any headway, managing just fourth and fifth places. Yosry, the winner in the 470 in 2007 had to concede hopes of a podium finish. “It was a woeful day. With only two races to go there’s very little we can do now,” he said.

The International 470 Class will be heading back to Doha in December this year for the 2010 470 Junior World Championships (men-mixed and women).

More Information:
Results
2010 470 Junior World Championships

Source: Gulf Times