Nitin Mongia dominates

World and Asian O K Dinghy champion Nitin Mongia continued to dominate in the ongoing Senior National Sailing championships off the Mumbai harbour by taking the gun in all three races held on Wednesday and comfortably lead the bunch.

However, luck favoured Mongia, winner of yesterday's first two races, in pleasant wind conditions when his closest rival for the top honours, D P Selvam (Army Yachting Node), met with a mishap when well set to win the first race of the day and third of the meet.

The mast of Selvam's boat got ripped out when he was clearly in the lead. It put paid to his chances of upsetting title-favourite Mongia, who is representing hosts Indian Naval Watermasnship Training Centre.

It also forced him to miss the next two races scheduled for the day as there was not enough time on hand to carry out repairs to his boat.

In Selvam's absence S Purshottam of the EME Sailing Association, Bhopal, took the second spot in two of the three races while V K Raut finished just behind Mongia in the other.

In the Enterprise class nationals, Naresh Yadav and crew G L Yadav of INWTC secured the top spot in the fourth and fifth races after finishing second behind overnight leaders Ashim Mongia and Amit Arvind in the day's opening race.

In the junior nationals, Salil Sabir of Goa Yachting Association had to drop out of the last two races of the day after developing some problem with his boat. He had won the first race. In his absence Ajay Raut and G Sandeep finished one-two. Shilpa and Neha won the first race of the day in the 420 class before Ninand Mainkar and Prasad Shelar clinched the last two races.

Second day results:

O K Dinghy class:

Race 3: 1. Nitin Mongia (Indian Naval Watermanship Training Centre, Mumbai), 2. S Purshottam (EMESA, Bhopal), 3. V K Raut (Army Yachting Node, Mumbai).

Race 4: Nitin Mongia, 2. S Purshottam, 3. V K Raut.

Race 5: Nitin Mongia, 2. V K Raut, 3. S Purshottam.

Enterprise class:

Race 3: 1. Ashim Mongia/Amit Arvind (INWTC), 2, N S Yadav/G L Yadav (INWTC), 3. S S Chauhan/S Sharma (INWTC).

Race 4: N S Yadav/G L Yadav, 2. A Mongia/A Arvind, 3. Dharmendra Singh/Joji Joseph (Corps of Engineers Training Centre, Pune).

Race 5: 1. N S Yadav/G L Yadav, 2. A Mongia/A Arvind, 3. Chauhan/Sharma.

420 Class (Open):

Race 3: 1. Shilpa/Neha (INWTC), 2. Ninad Mainkar/P Shelar (AYN, Mumbai), 3. Sandeep Rode/Gaurav Shinde (INWTC).

Race 4: 1. Mainkar/Shelar, 2. Shilpa/Neha, 3. Deepak Premkumar/Siddharth Varman (Tamil Nadu SA).

Race 5: 1. Mainkar/Shelar, 2. Shilpa/Neha, 3. Pallavi Naik/Rohini Rao (Goa Yachting Association).

Laser Class:

Race 3: 1. Salil Sabir (GYA), 2. G Sandeep (TNSA), 3. Ajay Rau (TNSA).

Race 4: Ajay Rau, 2. G Sandeep.

Race 5: Ajay Rau, 2. G Sandeep.