Our other sailors also performed well and Vishnu Sujeesh finished 14th, Janaki Balachander 18th, Ruqayya Nasrula 21st, Mahesh Balachander 29th, Avanti Menon 43rd, Zahabiya Nasrula 44th, Chitresh Thatta 53rd, and Navyn Prabhakar 75th.
The selection of Indian team was based upon the selection criteria promulgated alongwith ranking system introduced last year for the Optimist fleet. Whilst the National Squad is selected based on overall ranking of the sailor derived from best four results of the last five ranking regattas, the selection of the team for major championships is based on the ranking derived from the results achieved in the last three events.
Whilst we had also fielded two teams in the 29er class in the regatta, unfortunately, view issues with the custom clearance, the container carrying the charter boats organised by the Malaysia Yachting Association have not arrived Langkawi, Malaysia, thus the 29er racing was called off a day before the start of the event.
Non availability of the chartered boats was reported to us by the Chief National Coach when the team arrived at the venue on 06 Feb 12 and despite his request to return to India, so as to continue with training of the team, a conscious decision to retain the team at Langkawi was taken. The team had also indicated their inability to accept the funds spent on boarding & lodging as well as other allowances paid by the federation through funding sanctioned by the Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports, Government of India and the same will be refunded to the Government on final settlement of expenses.
Although there are still challenges to be overcome the preparations continue to move along for the Asian Sailing Championships 2012.
