Army sailors take lead on Day One

Hyderabad: Top seeds Ayaz Sheikh and Sandeep Jain lost in the trials of the World Military Games as a part of the  Deloitte Monsoon Regatta at the Hussainsagar lake in Hyderabad on Sunday. Ayaz and Sandeep lost to Navy’s Lemnok and Shekhar Yadav in the first race of the day. The top seeds, who got off to a great start, hit the land mass at the Yacht Club of Hyderabad and the raging wind didn’t help their case either as they were unable to recover from the hit.

Lemnok and Yadav on the other hand, hit the open left and headed straight towards the windward mark and drew first blood. Against the run of play in the second race, Lemnok and Yadav lost their way and ended up placed third. Ayaz and Sandeep won the second race. The Army trumped the Navy in the second series with the reclusive yet fabulous 470 Class  National Champion Mutthurajan claiming top position with two wins in a row.

Ayaz and Sandeep Jain are placed second overall at the end of Day One. Mutthurajan and crew topped the charts to give Army a hard edge and left the Navy in shambles with Commander Atool Sinha leaving a lot to be desired as second seed. “The Navy could have done a lot better said Commander Abhimanyu Patankar,” International Umpire who is Chief Umpire at the trials. Earlier in the day, the Topper Class coaching camp commenced with the wind speeds touching 23 knots. The prediction for Monday morning is heavy weather.