Monsoon Regatta begins amid frenzy

Hyderabad: An air of excitement was palpable when the Deloitte Monsoon Regatta got underway at Hussainsagar Lake here on Sunday. The sizeable crowd went into frenzy when top seeds Ayaz Sheikh and Sandeep Jain lost the first race to Lemnok and Shekhar Yadav of Navy from start to finish.

However, the Army trumped Navy competitors in the second series with the reclusive yet fabulous 470 Class national champion Mutthurajan claiming top position with two successive wins. “The Navy could have done a lot better,” said Commander Abhimanyu Patankar, chief umpire at the trials of the World Military Games.

The Topper Class coaching camp was snuffed out with wind speeds touching 23 knots. The lighter winds in the afternoon allowed the Omega sailors to wind in. The prediction for Monday morning is heavy weather and the tables may just turn in favour of Mutthurajan, who leads the fleet at the end of Day one.