Youth Regatta: Meet India’s young sailing heroes who are making their presence felt

Hyderabad: Come monsoon and the sailing season picks up in the picturesque Hussain Sagar.

Participants from all over India can be found in the national ranking event. After the recently concluded Hyderabad Sailing Week, the Secunderabad Club Youth Regatta (SCYR) is on till July 15 to be followed by the Yachting Club of Hyderabad’s (YCH) Monsoon Regatta between July 16 and 23.

The participants, aged between 10 and 19 years, are competing in various categories of boat races such as Ilea 4 and Optimist class boats (for solo sailing), International 420 class boats (for two-member team), and 29er class boats (also for two members). These boats are training boats, designed for international competitions like the Olympics and Asian Games.

Some of the organizations representing the regatta include Army Yachting Node, Mumbai, INWTC Mumbai, Trishna Sailing Club, Bengaluru, Mysore Army Sports, National Sailing School, Bhopal, New Boys School, Goa, Yacht Club of Hyderabad (YCH), Secunderabad Sailing Club (SSC) among others. At the ongoing SCYR, 67 sailors from across the country are participating, which includes 25 girls.

NewsMeter spoke to some of the sailors participating in the sailing event.

Fifteen-year-old Eklavya Bathan from National Sailing School, Bhopal has been into sailing since 2017. He was the champion of the Monsoon Regatta in 2021. “When I was a kid, my father took me to a summer camp, where I was introduced to sailing. I got selected for certain sailing competitions and decided to take up professional sailing. I am now looking forward to participating in the Asian Games and Olympics and accordingly training myself,” says Eklavya and adds that the tricky wind condition makes sailing more challenging and enjoyable in the Hussain Sagar Lake.

Seventeen-year-old Alekhya Coondoo, along with her teammate Akhil Pilli from Khammam will be representing India in the 420-world championship in Spain to be held between July 21 and 29. Interestingly, they are the only team to represent India after a gap of four years. They will compete with 126 accomplished sailors from across the world.

Alekhya has won gold at the first YAI North East Regatta 2023 recently, which allowed her to represent India in the 420-world championship at Alicante in Spain. However, 12th grader Alekhya doesn’t want to be a professional sailor.

“I want to study medicine and will be appearing for NEET next year. I love water sports and grew up seeing my mother, who has been an excellent swimmer and champion, which inspired me to take up sailing. I have been into this environment-friendly sport since I was around 10 years of age,” says the class topper and head girl of Hyderabad Public School (HPS), Ramanthapur.

Apart from her coaches, Alekhya also has a fitness instructor and a nutritionist to professionally guide her to prepare for the upcoming World Championship. “Despite challenges like poor quality of lake water due to pollution and wind shifts, I like sailing in Hussain Sagar,” says Alekhya who has been practicing daily for around three hours.

Alekhya’s sailing partner Akhil Pilli is an open school student of 11th standard. He is presently pursuing his sports and education at Boys Sports Company of MEG Centre, Bangalore. He was selected by the Army Sports School for his achievements as a sailor. He aspires to join the army to serve India.

Both these sailors got qualified to participate in their maiden international event after winning the three National Ranking events held so far at Mysore, Marve in Mumbai, and Shillong recently. According to their coaches Arjun Pradipak and Sanjeev Chauhan, the young sailors from Telangana will fight with strong contenders from Germany, New Zealand, Australia, Brazil, Italy, and Switzerland.

Coach, Asian Games participant, and chairman of the organizing committee of Secunderabad Club Youth Regatta Arjun Pradipak says, “They have been trained hard to perform well in tough competitions. They are comfortable to sail in all conditions.”

Apart from the sailors from Secunderabad Club, there was also 16-year-old Vaishnavi Veeravamsham from Yacht Club of Hyderabad (YCH) who has participated in international contests in around seven European countries besides several national-level tourneys. Vaishnavi had been an erstwhile national champion in the under-15 category.

She recently topped the girl's fleet in the ILCA 4 with three wins in the ongoing sailing event. “I used to study at Government Girls High School in West Marredpally. One day, someone from the YCH came to our school and asked if we are interested in sailing. I was interested and thus my sailing journey began. Now I go to NIOS School and I am taking coaching in sailing from Suheim Sheikh from YCH and practice three to four hours daily. I dream of representing India in the Olympics and the Asian Games, for which I know, more rigorous training will be needed,” says Vaishnavi.

The Secunderabad Club Youth Regatta is organized by Secunderabad Sailing Club, one of the oldest sailing clubs in India with a history spanning nearly 150 years since 1878. The club is probably one of the few clubs in the world with its own Sailing Annexe overlooking the vast and beautiful Hussain Sagar Lake. The club has in the past hosted significant international and Asia Pacific events.

Secunderabad Club has produced many outstanding sailors both at the national and international level including the late C S Pradipak, Arjuna Awardee, Asian Games Medalist, and YAI Lifetime Award winner. Secunderabad Club has been running coaching camps under the guidance of Commodore Arjun Pradipak, YAI dinghy instructor to popularise sailing among young sailors.

This sailing event is accredited as a Yachting Association of India (YAI) ranking event. This means that the ranking of a sailor at these sailing tourneys will be considered towards overall national ranking and subsequent selections for various national and international championships.