The 2013 Monsoon Regatta kicked off at the Hussainsagar Lake in Hyderabad on Tuesday with local lad Rajnikanth and Vishnu Sujeesh of Chennai taking the spotlight in the Topper category.
Aided by a wind of 23 knots, Vishnu unfurled his sail to dominate his half of the qualifying draw with three straight wins. Rajnikanth topped Group ‘B’ with two wins and a second-placed finish.
Later in the second stage of the race — where in the fleet of 18 sailors were divided into ‘Gold’ and ‘Silver’ groups based on their qualifying performances — Vishnu continued his excellent show, despite being pushed by Dheer Singhi.
In the first race of the Gold Fleet, Dheer took the wind in his sail as he soared to victory unchallenged. Vishnu and Rajnikanth finished second and third in that order.
In Race 2, sailors had to negotiate a tricky wind that swayed more than 15 degrees in both directions. However, Vishnu showed his class by overcoming the obstacles to take the top spot. Rajnikanth and Dheer shared the second place.