Hyderabad|India|July'2010: The Tata Photon Monsoon Regatta Hobie Inland championships saw the complete domination of Kaushal Kumar and crew Girish M across all conditions.

With 7 wins and 3 second places there was scarcely any space for even second place.

Kaushal and Girish finished overall first winning the coveted Apollo Munich Trophy in the Hobie 16 Class with 7 penalty points followed by Brijesh Verma and BS Rao at 17 points.

In the 9th race it was Kaushal and Girish all the way from start to finish leaving no room for doubt about his supremacy over the entire fleet. Kaushals intelligent reading of wind shifts and better boat speed complimented with the able crewing of Girish M proved un beatable.

Verma and Rao gave Kaushal a run for his money in the 10th race with varying wind conditions and with some back and forth across the down wind legs Verma took the lead in the final finishing leg to take his second win.

Brijesh Verma and BS Rao got he silver with 17 penalty points followed by Praveena and Janjirkar who got the Bronze with 23 penalty points.

In the Match Racing fleet of J24 boats, Aashim Mongia was conspicuous by his absence and his team had to do without him as he was hit by high fever the previous night.

Nitin Mongia and Mahesh R had a close race in the round robin and R Mahesh was penalized for a blatant foul which resulted in a collision . Commander Mahesh got ahead by the end of the first leg with some good wind reading but Nitin craftily got ahead while R Mahesh was completing his penalty.

Speaking about today’s races Nitin Mongia said, today’s race between me and Mahesh was very close, Mahesh had a penalty and I could win the race against him, hope to see a close race tomorrow to in the second round robin too before getting into semi finals.

Some close racing thereafter and a bit of cat and mouse between the arch rivals and great friends got Defending champion Nitin Mongia a whisker ahead at the finish.

Defending Girls Champion Ayesha Lobo lost a close race to Taramati Matiwade for the first time in her career which shows the progress than Taramati has made over the past year.

The overall positions after the first round robin are Nitin Mongia (1), Mahesh Ramchandran (2), Aashim Mongia (3) and Taramati Matiwade (4). Nitin Mongia won all his matches with an 100% record.

The second Round Robin will commence tomorrow but as of now we can safely bet on a nailbiting finale between the stalwarts R.Mahesh and Nitin Mongia both Arjuna awardees with Mahesh ranked 33 in the world and Nitin at 93.

The little Optimists were dotting the waterscape of Hussain Sagar in a training session conducted by the ever present Sunil Lobo of RBYC Mumbai. The youngsters were practicing for the Tata Photon Monsoon Regatta Optimist Championsips slated to start tomorrow with the first race at 10:15 on 16th morning.

Defending Champion Upamanyu Dutta has still to arrive from Malaysia as we write this report and Ganapati the Asian Games selectee has arrived without his spars. Zaphra currimbhoy was displaying supreme confidence on shore by cleaning up her boat laden with coal dust from the Chennai Port.

The Optimists will be the largest fleet tomorrow with more than 50 entries including about 12 local youngsters. The entire purpose of the Monsoon Regatta has always been to focus on youngsters making this the championship to watch for and certainly the most competitive.

-July'' 2010