Vaishnavi Veeravamsham of Hyderabad, after a gold medal drought for a year, finally regained form and won the just-concluded YAI (Yachting Association of India) Nationals (YAI Mysore Multi-Class Youth Championship and Kiteboard Championship) at the Krishnaraja Sagara Reservoir at Mysore with a more-than-convincing 10 wins out of 12 races.
The winds were often raging above 20 knots leaving only the fittest to survive in the junior fleet where Vaishnavi got the gold and Jhansi Priya Laveti clinched the bronze.
Vaishnavi clearly established her India No. 2 ranking, and aspires to be the No. 1 in the near future and also for a spot in the Asian Games at China, which should be hers if she performs well at the next three regattas.
In the sub-juniors, Tanuja Kameshwar claimed the girls' silver, consistent with her current India No. 2 Sub-Junior ranking. Tanuja is close to confirming her spot for the upcoming Asian Games in December.
M S Daniel, another sailor of Hyderabad, showed promise by winning one race and showing up in the top five in two others. The green fleet of light-weight beginners saw a spate of medals with Lahiri Komaravelly and Sahith Bandaram winning the girls' gold and boys' silver respectively, and Amitava Veerareddy winning the boys' bronze.
"While we still have a long way to go to clinch many top positions, this performance has been satisfactory with six medals, and we look forward to grabbing many more golds in the next set of regattas," said Suheim Sheikh of the Yacht Club of Hyderabad.
The YCH will be opening up a waterschool soon at Durgam Cheruvu, where sailing and allied sports will be taught.