Varun Thakkar and Ganapathy Kelpanda , two youth from Chennai, participated in the 15th Asian Sailing Championship held at Langkawi, Malaysia recently . Competing in a field that included last year’s Asians and Optimist Worlds champion, Ganapathy and Varun put up an impressive performance and won the Bronze, bringing the first ever overseas youth medal in sailing for India .
The Asian Sailing Championship is one of the major multiclass events that draw top class sailors from all over the Asian continent. This year it was held at Langkawi, Malaysia where 217 sailors from 17 countries competed in 8 classes of boats. India had fielded a total of 8 sailors in the youth classes, 4 in the Optimist class and 4 in the 29er. In the Optimist class three out of the four were from TNSA while in the two-handed 29er class the two teams were K C Ganapathy / and Varsha Gautham / Aishwarya Nedunchezhian, all from TNSA.
The Bronze didn’t come easy; it was the result of several years of hard work and dedicated training. Both Varun and Ganapathy started sailing at a very young age and were trained by TNSA coach Munna Jamal in their formative years. They were both Under-12 champions in the Optimist class and continued to be on top in this class nationally. They also came up with creditable performances in the Optimist in international events, with Ganapathy bringing in the best ever Indian performances so far in the Optimist Asians and the Optimist Worlds. Varun, the older of the two moved on to Laser 4.7 and won a few medals in this category before Ganapathy superannuated from the Optimist class to join Varun and make the formidable pair they are now in the 29er class. Both sailors for the last two years have opted for Open schooling in order to concentrate on their sailing. While Varun is on the Future Champions programme of the Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu, Ganapathy has been selected for the Pace Scholarship for 2012.
The Yachting Association of India has been very supportive of the sailors’ efforts and has been proactive in taking all possible steps to raise the level of Indian performance in the International arena. Ganapathy and Varun who are one of the 2 national squad teams in the 29er class have been undergoing intense training for the past several months under the tutelage of Pete Conway, the Chief Coach and Amish Ved, an accomplished skiff sailor in the country and a pilot with Jet Airways, who gave up his flying time in order to help these youngsters. They have participated in 29er championships in Sydney and Brisbane in notoriously tough conditions of the Australian waters in preparation for the Asian Championships. Pete Conway and Amish Ved have made a significant contribution in improving the sailors’ technique and boat speed and have had a major hand in their success at the Asian Championships. The sailors will now prepare for their next major challenge at ISAF Youth Sailing World Championship to be held in Dublin, Ireland in July.
Tamil Nadu Sailing Association is the largest sailing establishment in the country today with the biggest fleet of competitive sailors. TNSA was affiliated to the Tamil Nadu Olympic Association in Nov 2007 and was recognised as the Tamil Nadu State Federation in 2009 by the Yachting Association of India. The Association is supported by the Government of India, the Government of Tamil Nadu, the Chennai Port Trust, the Indian Navy, the Indian Army, the Indian Coast Guard and the National Cadet Corps.
The next step for TNSA is to realise its long cherished dream and ambition of setting up a Sailing Academy which will be a centre for nurturing sailing excellence in the country. Of imminent importance is a well-equipped world class Marina, which will house the Sailing Academy and a boat yard offering safe berthing and refit facilities for visiting yachts, which can boost tourism in the state. TNSA’s earnest hope is that Tamil Nadu’s Chief Minister, Selvi J Jayalalitha in whose earlier tenure TNSA came into existence will now make its dream of a Sailing Academy and a Marina a reality in her current tenure.
Right from the beginning, the association’s mission was to make the sport affordable and available to all sections of the society and by helping them discover the joy of the sport, get more youngsters to take to sailing. This proved a success formula as in a very short while membership swelled and the number of sailors grew steadily. Within two years of its inception TNSA sailors started getting medals in the national events in the youth classes and since then there has never been a national event without TNSA sailors among the top. TNSA also has the largest fleet of sailors competing in any youth class national event now and form the major part of the Indian team in international events.
