Shroff-Patel in 18th place

The Indian sailing duo of Malav Shroff and Sumeet Patel were placed 18th at the end of the fourth race in the 49er (double-handed Dinghy Open) at the Olympic Games regatta in Athens on Wednesday.

Wild card entrants Shroff and Patel logged 69 penalty points after being placed 17th (following the disqualification of Poland and Italy), 19th, 18th and 15th (all provisional) in the second to fourth races held during the day.

The Indians started the second day of the 16-race competition on an encouraging note following their two-rung elevation to the 17th spot in the opening race sailed yesterday after protests against the winning duo from Poland and Italy were upheld by the race committee.

The Indians again had a poor second race by trailing the rest of the fleet throughout, while going around the four marks. They put up an improved display in the next race and were involved in a ding-dong battle with the Danish pair of Michael Hestbaek and Dennis Dengsoe for the 17th spot,

leading the latter around the first and last mark before settling for the 18th spot.

In the fourth and last race, four pairs of sailors belonging to Norway, Japan, Poland and USA were disqualified which enabled Shroff and Patel to end up 15th.

The German pair of Marcus Baur and Max Groy, who finished third in the last World championship, are in the lead now with 20 penalty points, followed by the Britons Simon Hiscocks and Chris Draper, who were silver medalists in the Sydney Games and Spaniards Iker Martinez and Xavier Fernandez.