India edge ahead

An update from the Nations Cup match racing qualifier in Dubai

Asian champions India sent Turkey to their first defeat at the ISAF Nations Cup regional qualifier in Dubai today (Wednesday), but both teams moved comfortably through to the semi-finals where they face UAE opposition.

The Jebel Ali Sailing Club team skippered by Christopher Graham and Cedric Le Rest’s crew from event hosts Dubai International Marine Club complete tomorrow’s (Thursday) semi-final line-up after a three-day round robin series of match racing.

There was disappointment for the UAE’s Ahmed Shaheen and his all-Emirati crew who had looked to be cruising towards a place in the last four but lost all three of their matches today (Wednesday) to go out of the event.

As the round robin series entered the final stages in the early evening, India held a narrow advantage over the Turks, and as the skipper with the most wins Mahesh Ramchandran would later have the right to select his semi-final opponents.

The crucial moments of the third day of the regional qualifier came in mid-afternoon. First Ramchandran took India to victory over the Turks to ensure the Asian gold medallists topped the round robin series.

Shaheen then suffered successive defeats at the hands of Le Rest and Graham to surrender his chance of reaching the semi-finals. As that left Shaheen and Le Rest tied on four wins each, the UAE team’s defeat by the DIMC crew was decisive.

On the first two days Shaheen had seemed to be well on course for the last four showdown, with a place in the grand final of the ISAF Nations Cup in Ireland awaiting the outright winners in Dubai.

But he never recovered from a bad start to the day when he lost out to the UAE ladies team skippered by Bekky Britton, who have already booked their passage to the Royal Cork Yacht Club in September as the only all-ladies crew contesting the qualifier.

Boosted by their win against the Turks, the Indians went on to beat the second all-Emirati crew skippered by Yousuf Khalid and then scored another victory over Britton to make it 11 wins out of 12 round robin matches

ISAF Nations Cup regional qualifying round, third day round robin results:

UAE ladies (Bekky Britton) bt UAE 1 (Ahmed Shaheen)
Turkey (Orkun Soyer) bt UAE 2 (Yousuf Khalid Mohammad)
JASC (Christopher Graham) bt DIMC (Cedric Le Rest)
India (Mahesh Ramchandran) bt Turkey (Soyer)
India (Ramchandran) bt UAE 2 (Mohammad)
DIMC (Le Rest) bt UAE 1 (Shaheen)
India (Ramchandran) bt UAE ladies (Britton)
JASC (Graham) bt UAE 1 (Shaheen)
DIMC (Le Rest) bt UAE ladies (Britton)
Turkey (Soyer) bt JASC (Graham)

Overall positions after 19 of 21 flights of two matches each:

India (Ramchandran) 11 wins
Turkey (Soyer) 10
JASC (Graham) 5
UAE 1 (Shaheen) 4
DIMC (Le Rest) 4
UAE 2 (Mohammad) 2
UAE ladies (Britton) 2