By Raju Vernekar
Mumbai, November 14
The Yachting Association of India (YAI) Senior National Sailing Championship 2022 is being conducted by Indian Navy Watermanship Training Centre (INWTC), Mumbai under the aegis of the YAI and Indian Naval Sailing Association (INSA) for senior classes of boats off Mumbai Harbour till November 20.
The event is a YAI ranking event and selection trial for the forthcoming Asian Games scheduled in China in September 2023 an official statement read.
Over 115 sailors, from 15 sailing clubs across the country, have registered for the event. A series of 12 races per class are scheduled in eight class of boats viz. ILCA 7, ILCA 6, 49er, 49erFX, 470, NACRA 17, RS:X and IQ Foil in men, women and mixed categories.
A team of event officials including World Sailing qualified International Race Officers, International Judges and Measurers including foreign race officials from Oman, Korea and Singapore will be ensuring fair conduct of races and level playing ground to all the competitors.
The 19th edition of the Asian Games will be held in Hangzhou, China from September 23, 2023 to October 08, 2023.
The Task Force over the last two months held various discussions with the Chinese Olympic Committee, Hangzhou Asian Games Organising Committee (HAGOC) and other stakeholders to find a window for the Games which did not conflict with other major international sporting events.
The 19th Asian Games was originally planned to be held in Hangzhou from September 10 to September 25 in the current year. However, due to the COVID-19 global pandemic, the Games were postponed by the OCA Executive Board and a “Task Force” was created to finalise the new dates for the Games.
Hangzhou lies less than 200 kilometre from the China’s largest city Shanghai, which went through a months-long lockdown at the beginning of current year.
