Mongia stays on course
for sailing medal

India's Nitin Mongia maintained a slender one point lead, despite finishing second in both the races on Monday, to consolidate his chances for a medal in the O K Dinghy sailing at the Asian Games.

With three more rounds to go, Mongia has a score of 14, just a one point advantage over Korea's Hong C Jin after the end of the eighth round.

The slim advantage means Mongia will have to hold on to his nerves and remain consistent in the remaining rounds to entertain any hope for the gold in a pack of four quality sailors.

Among the other Indians in fray at the Busan Yachting Centre, the pair of Ashim Mongia and R Mahesh continued in second position in the Enterprise class division behind J H Hun and K Jung of Korea with 14 points. The Koreans are comfortably placed for a top finish with seven points.

In the Radial Open category, India's Rajesh Chaudhury, with 22 net points, brightened his chances of a medal after placing himself in the third position behind China's S Shen (8 net points) and Korea's J G Kim (12 points).

Starting the race as the sole leader, Nitin Mongia finished both the seventh and eighth races in second position which helped Jin bridge the gap.

With a superb finish, the Korean ended both the races in first place as both Mongia and Jin secured indentical 11 net points today.

Laser (full rig) sailor Sandeep Srikanth had a bad sail today, finishing in sixth and fifth positions respectively to total 34 points, while the leader, H K Kim of Korea, sat pretty for the gold with seven points.

In the 420 class men's category, Farokh Tarapore and Vikas Kapila were placed a poor fifth (29 net points).

The Jani sisters, Ridhi and Aditi, who failed to impress at the beginning of the race, continued to languish at the eighth and last positions.

In the Optimist class (boys) Salil Sabir was placed eighth while in the girls' section Shilpa Oberoi finished seventh.