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Hyderabad, The sailing Nationals the India International Regatta were recently concluded at Krishnapatnam port, Andhra Pradesh with countries like Ireland, Sweden, Hong Kong, UAE, Malaysia, Indonesia , and Sri Lanka participating.
8 medals for Telangana and young Durga Prasad rising to India No.1 and a Silver at the International were the icing on the T-cake.
The Telangana sailors, intensively trained at the Yacht Club, have populated the Navy and Army and came together fromBangalore, Goa and Hyderabad to grab podium positions at the Nationals.
The sailors were out in the rough open sea of the east coast practicing at a month long camp hosted by the 
Telangana Sailing Association that proved to be fruitful with a significant medal haul.
Durga Prasad, once seeded 2nd in India had dropped to 10th at the Bhopal nationals this August but with true grit and determination bounced back to a Boy’s silver at the nationals but still at India No.3 with Uma Chauhan of MP at No.1 and Neelanand of Tamilnadu at 2.
At the International Durga sailed close to a perfect regatta finishing at the top of the Indian fleet and also clinching a bronze medal behind Remadan Tito of Indonesia (Gold) and Alexander Baudin of Sweden (Silver) to close his under 16 career with a flourish by being the top Indian beating both Chauhan and Neelanand who finished 4th and 10th respectively.
“I always felt that I was the best Sub Junior Indian sailor and now I have proved it” , said Durga Prasad at the end of his last race at the International. “I learned a lot from my bad regattas”, he added.
Another notable performance from Telangana was Gowtham Kankatla who finished India No.5 at his first Laser International.
’It feels great to have created yet another national champion after Leela Sagar and Rishab Nayar from the Hussain Sagar lake and I am sure Durga Prasad will now move to the Juniors in the Laser and once again prove that he is the best at the International level too.” said Suheim Sheikh his coach at the Yacht Club of Hyderabad.
Affan Mubeen a novice sailor from TEMREIS the Telangana Minorities Residential Educational Society got the overall Bronze at the nationals.
Bethamalla Sachin and Vishwanath both from the Telangana Social Welfare Schools proved their mettle by clinching Gold and Silver for Boys in the International Green Fleet and the girls from Telangana clinched all the metal with a Gold for Vaishnavi Veerasham, Silver for Maseeha Firdous and Bronze for Sonu Mohammad the later two from TEMREIS, while Vaishnavi is from the Naavika program for girls at the Yacht Club.
“Telangana is a force to reckon with and once the government starts to recognize Sailing based on these superb performances I am sure Telangana will be at top spot very soon. 8 medals is not easy for a land locked state to achieve in a water sport”, said Lt.Gen. KS Rao the President of the Telangana Sailing Association and himself an Arjuna Awardee.
