Mumbai: Veteran sailors and Asian Games medallists Farokh Tarapore and Ramachandran Mahesh will lead the Indian challenge in the ISS Third Mumbai International Match Race 2009 to be held off the waters of Chowpatty here.
Apart from Tarapore and Mahesh, three other Indian teams - including an all-woman squad led by Ayesha Lobo - will also take part in the November 2-5 event in which seven foreign teams would also be participating, it was announced at a press conference today.
Teams from Estonia, led by their national champion Mati Sepp, Sweden, Korea, Bahrain, France, Ireland and Thailand are to vie for top honours in the event which is touted as the T20 format of sailing, said Tarapore who is also the president of the Match Racing Association of India.
“The first event we held in 2007 was a grade three event and this event is a grade two competition as per the norms set by the International Sailing Federation,” said three-time Asian Games champion Tarapore.
Ashim Mongia, who is another home country participant along with his brother Nitin, said the MRAI is aiming to bring the world match race event to India by 2010-11.
Tarapore said while the prize money was USD 10,000 for the 2007 edition, this time there was no prize money on offer as the MRAI had to undergo a lot of hardships in conducting the 2008 event, held in January this year, in the wake of the 26/11 terror attack on Mumbai.
Tarapore said that a grade one event held in Russia had offered prize money of 55,00 Euros but grade two events can be held even without prize money if other standards are met.
Mahesh, winner of a silver medal in match racing when it was introduced in the Asian Games in 2006 at Doha and the reigning Asian champion, said the races would be held from 11 am to 5:30 pm daily and the competition would be a league cum knock out.
Each team would sail one against the other in the round robin phase to identify the top four who would advance into the semi finals.
“In the semi finals the top finisher in the league stage can choose his rival from any of the other three qualifiers,” Tarapore explained.
“Russian sailors could not make it due to passport and visa problems,” he said.
Match racing in the open category is a medal event at the 2010 and 2014 Asian Games while the women's competition is to make its debut in the 2012 London Olympics, according to the veteran sailor.
The championship is conducted under the aegis of the Indian Naval Waterman Training Centre and MRAI.
Bureau Report