Rajesh, Selvam, Amit head rich field in laser coastal nationals

Chennai, May 24 (UNI) Close on the heels of the Optimist Nationals held earlier this month, the waters of the Bay of Bengal at the mouth of Chennai harbour will now be hosting top-class action with the country's best sailors vying for honours in the Olympic grade Laser Coastal National Sailing Championship begining here tomorrow and to be concluding on May 30.

Addressing a press conference here Capt R Ravikumar, the race officer, said sailors from Army Yachting Node-Mumbai, Tamil Nadu Sailing Association-Chennai, Secunderabad Sailing Club, EMESA- Secunderabad, Royal Madras Yacht Club, Corps of Engineers Sailing Club-Pune, Indian Navy Watermanship Training Centre-Mumbai, Goa Yatching Association, Indian Navy Sailing Association, Indian Navy Watermanship Trg Centre-Pune, INS Mandvi, Naval Base Kochi Sailing School and 3 EME Centre will participate in the event.

The fleet of sailors who would also be under a pressure to perform well keeping in view the selection to represent India in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, will be headed by armymen's Rajesh Choudhary of AYN, who has won a number of national titles in both the radial and Standard Rig class and had brought the country laurels winning the Bronze in Busan Asian Games in 2002 and in the 2006 Games in Doha.

Rajesh's colleague D P Selvam will be spearheading the challenge in the Laser Standard Rig. The challenge from the Navy will be led by Lt Amit Arvind from INWTC-Mumbai, who had brought glory to the country in the Enterprise World Championship and has a number of national titles. He had also participated in the 2006 Guanghzou Pre-Olympic event in this category.

From Tamil Nadu, talented boys and girls would be leading the entries list graduating to Laser 4.7 class from the OptImist Class, lead by school girl Shwetha Sadanand. Sarav Rajavelu, who has qualified for the International Optimist Dinghy Association's Asian Championships and Arun Dhanasekaran will also be in the action.

Chennai, will be hosting the laser nationals for the fourth year in succession, since 2004.

UNI