Puducherry, Jan 28 (IANS) French national team member Karim Sofiane and India's rising sailor Harshita Tomar shared the top honours in their respective categories at the end of the four-day Sailing The East Coast Regatta here on Sunday.
Organised as part of the third Bonjour India festival, Sofiane grabbed the top spot by carding a net 16 with a lone discard on round 8 in the Laser Radial class, which is also the Olympics category while Harshita came from behind to card a net 21, with two discards in round 1 and round 10 respectively, to emerge on top of her Laser 4.7 class.
Harshita bounced back from a rough start in her opening round where she got herself discarded with (9.0), but picked herself brilliantly in the successive rounds to establish her dominance.
The 15-year-old from Bhopal topped the next 8 rounds to consolidate her position in the pole position in the regatta.
"I am very happy to win in the Laser 4.7 category, I did not have an ideal start to the Regatta but confidence from my team mates and mentors helped me to bounce back," Harshita told IANS here.
The youngster is currently focussing on the trials for the upcoming Asian Games, which will be held in Chennai in a couple of months.
"I am now looking forward to qualify for the Asian Games and make my country proud," she said.
Sofiane, on the other hand, started the regatta steadily and maintained his position though the next four days.
Barring the solitary discard on round 8 (7.0), Sofiane had a swift sail on all four days and maintained a healthy lead against his compatriots,
"It was a brilliant experience for me to come for the Regatta in Puducherry and compete against some quality Indian sailors, I think the weather conditions were perfect and the sea was stable for all the four days," Sofiane told IANS after the win.
"I would like to congratulate Bonjour India for hosting us and putting together a well organised Sailing Regatta. I am looking forward to being a part of this next year too," he added.
The regatta witnessed participation of around 50 competitors, including international sailors in various categories of the event.
Besides the two categories, the event also featured participation in the Optimists, International 420 and Seabird categories.
(Tridib Baparnash can be contacted at tridib.b@ians.in)
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