(Report written by Ajay Rau – fellow international sailor, brother and student of Communications & Journalism at UNSW, Sydney) On Sunday 12th April, 2009, Rohini made history for Indian Olympic sailing at the 2009 Izola Spring cup –ISAF Grade 3 event. The Royal Madras Yacht Club sailor is the First Indian Woman to finish on the podium in an International Olympic Class Regatta.
This is her first International medal in the single hander Radial class. She is not new to making history. Team Pallavi Naik and Rohini Rau won India’s first women’s sailing Asian Gold medal in the 420 Class in Mumbai in January 2004. And in October 2008 Rohini was part of the first Indian Match Racing Team to win an Asian Gold at the Regional finals of the Nations Cup held in Mumbai. But this medal is even more special as this medal was achieved in a single hander Olympic Class of Boats in International waters.
Despite having the worst possible start to a regatta (DSQ: scoring maximum points) Rohini managed to climb back strong and win the bronze medal. She did well to keep the home favorite at bay and only gave Marusa Krasevac (SLO) a sniff of the bronze medal. She fought hard against Fellow Gold and Silver medalisits, Elisabetta Macchini (ITA) and Katharina Roeggla (AUT).
Rohini’s initial reaction after winning the medal.
" It feels good........I mean I was only 2 points away from silver and then I messed up my last race .It was the first time I had got 2 yellow flag penalties in the first race itself (DSQ)......so in spite of all that...I guess bronze wasn't so bad.....”
Her reaction shows she is not content with just making it to thepodium. She has a burning desire to win.
4 times Olympian and Coach Allen Jullie (SEY) was all praise. This is what he had to say about Rohini:
“She kept a cool head and focused right through the regatta. Her goal this month was to just get into shape as she had been racing different classes of boats. She surprised all of us by winning the bronze medal after a 1 year break from international competition in the radial class. She has potential to create waves in the international sailing scene. She is a medical student; yet she has been able to train hard and sail. I am happy to be working with the Indian athlete.”
When asked how it feels to be the first Indian Woman to Win a medal in a Women's Olympic Class (Sailing)
"It's a step in the right direction for Indian women in sailing...after all the support and effort that my parents, brother (Ajay Rau) ,coach Alen Jullie (Seychelles) and fitness trainer Ramji Srinivas have put in...I guess this is only the beginning....” The 2007 YAI woman sailor of the year said with pride.
She also thanked the SDAT( Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu),SAI (Sports Authority of India) and AMM Foundation for their long time support.
To win a medal in Europe is remarkable as it hosts some of the toughest circuits on the tour. For an Indian woman to win medals in sailing was “just a Dream” not so long ago. This experience should help her shape up well for the forth coming National Championships against the men where she finished 3rd overall last year. This is also good preparation for major events like the European and World Championships for which Rohini will be representing India.
This historic feat will do well to inspire women sailing in India at an International and Olympic level. Hopefully the repeated achievements by this young sailing star will finally get the attention she deserves from the Indian selectors and officials to support her and women sailing.
She was presented with a plaque from Slovenian Sailing legend Vasilij Zbogar Olympic Silver (08) & Bronze (04) medalist after achieving this milestone.
Mumbai International Match Race ‘09 in a nutshell : ROHINI RAU
3 February 2009No Comment
Sailing started as a leisure activity and soon became an addiction for her. And soon the addiction transformed her life so much that she simply refused to get out of it. Meet Rohini Rau, whose addiction to sailing has fetched her one Asian Championship gold medal, many national titles and also made her the first Indian woman sailor to be ranked in the international chart.
She has the rare distinction of bringing home Tamilnadu’s first gold medal for India in Sailing and along with her sailing partner Pallavi Naik from Goa Yachting Association of being the first girls to win a gold medal for India in Sailing at an International Meet.
Also, she was apart of one of the girl teams in the Mumbai International Match Race ‘09 that concluded last week…and she has sent her detailed report of the entire event; concluded with a report on the ISAF Nations Cup last year - in which their performance got them competing in their first Women’s International Match Racing Association (WIMRA) event.
THE T20 OF SAILING…
“I love sailing my Laser Radial… but I guess I love Match racing even more! I had a hard time convincing my Dad to let me spend Christmas and New Years in New York, and miss the Miami OCR to come and take part in the Mumbai International Match Race – 2008 (which got postponed due to the Mumbai terror attacks). But it was well worth it.
I traveled for nearly 21 hours to get to Mumbai on the 20th of January 2009 (New York(JFK) – Dubai – Chennai – Mumbai).
Totally jet lagged I met up with the rest of the team – Pallavi Naik (Goa), Alekhya Sudam (Hyd) and Tulsi Khetwal (Bom) a truly national team…as I am from Chennai.
We were all set to sail the Qualifiers of the Mumbai International Match Race starting on the 23nd of January 2009 at H2O, Chowpatty, Mumbai.
There were a total of 14 teams taking part, including Russian, Finnish and Bahrain Teams. Even though the qualifier was only to choose the Indian teams that would take part in the actual Mumbai International Match Race – 2008.
There were only 2 women teams skippered by Pallavi Naik and Ayesha Lobo. One woman’s team by default would get to participate in the MIMR, to encourage women sailors in our country. That was the plan.
The 14 teams were split into 2 groups of 7. And each group sailed a Round Robin series. The top 3 teams in each group went on to sail another round robin to decide the final 4 who would sail the Final and petit final.
In our group we had 2 time World Champion – Farokh Tarapore, Nithin Mongia, Peter Kochnev (RUS), Azhar Sheik, Ayesha Lobo and Shahid Basheer.
It was a tough group, and we weren’t expecting very much. But much to our delight we managed 3 wins out of 6. After narrowly missing out on being the 3rd team in our group after losing to Peter Kochnev (RUS).
This meant we had a sail off with the team that finished 4th in the other group. This happened to be against the 300+ kg Finnish team Lauri Kaapa, who had requested for a substitute as one of his team members was down with a fever.
In my opinion they should have been sailing with 3 people as they weighed nearly 100 kgs more than we did!
As luck would have it, the wind picked up to about 15- 20 knots that afternoon, but due to damage we sailed the race without the spinnaker. We didn’t give up till the end. It was a tough race. We lost to the Finnish team, but still managed an eighth position overall.
We were thrilled! We not only beat our only female competitor, we beat the other Indian men’s teams qualified to sail the MIMR in our own right. Not just because we were women!”
“This Grade 2 event attracted 5 International teams – 2 from Russia, 2 from Finland and 1 from Bahrain.
With a strong Indian contingent of 6 men’s teams and 1 women’s team, the MIMR – 2008 kicked off on the 25th of January 2009 beginning with a huge turn out at the opening ceremony at H2O.
Being the only women’s team in the MIMR had some benefits, but also had its disadvantages. We were one of the lightest teams in the event, even though we had an extra crew member Taramati Matiwade. We were also the team with the least experience.
With 5 women on board, things could get a little difficult. There was a lot of confusion on board, but we sailed to the best of our ability. It was a little disheartening to find that we couldn’t win a single race. Due to various reasons, the wind gods weren’t very kind to us, blowing at 15 – 20 knots.
It was a test of stamina and grit as on the second day of racing we had to sail 6 races back to back. I think it took a toll on all of us. Pallavi had hurt her knee, the rest of us were bruised and quite tired.
All in all, the experience made us realize that we had to work and practice harder to be more competitive in the breeze.
These were tough conditions for the other teams too, ISAF world ranked 15 Arbuzov from Russian who had also won the MIMR -2007, did not have it easy. After losing to Lauri Kaapa (FIN), Farokh Tarapore and Nithin Mongia (IND) .I guess the Match Racing Association of India (MRAI) have been doing something right.
Farokh was glad that he had given Arbuzov a hard time, definitely one of his highlights in this event.
The 12 teams had to sail a complete round robin to determine the top 6 teams who would sail the semi – finals. But it was the Indian star Nitin Mongia who ruled the first day with 100% wins.
By the second day the top 6 teams were chosen to sail the semi final :-
1. Arbuzov 2. Olli Pekka 3. Farokh Tarapore 4. Mahesh Ramachandran 5. Nithin Mongia 6. Lauri Kaapa
Umpire for a day
I had the rare distinction of becoming part of the Jury for the semi – final. I was an umpire for the day with International Jury Piero Occheto (ITA). It was an amazing experience umpiring a Grade 2 semi-final.
I was the yellow boat for all the races, which meant I had to report whatever the yellow boat did during the race, and thus help in making decisions on penalties, etc.
All the time that I had been a mere spectator on Ajay Balram’s (IU) umpire boat finally paid off, as I was familiar with the terms used.
Aware of the responsibility I had to make the right calls, I did whatever I could to the best of my ability. Pierro acknowledged my contribution by saying I would make a good IU (International Umpire) one day.
The match with Farokh and Nithin was indeed an exciting match; there were 2 penalties, one for each boat during the pre –start, that cancelled each other out. But in the end Nithin Mongia and Laura Kaapa (FIN) were knocked out.
The Final
Now on Day 3 it was time for the Final and petit – final. After a long wait on shore, the wind gods, in all its fervor, made the day’s racing a true challenge.
Much to our disappointment, the Indians were out of the Final. Which left the Russian and the Finn’s to fight for the title.
I must admit it was a treat for every spectator who bothered to come out on a hot Saturday afternoon to witness some good Match Racing.
World Champion Farokh Tarapore and the Asian Games silver medalist R. Mahesh raced in the petit – final for 3rd place. The team that scored 2 points won; the same with the Final between Arbuzov (RUS), who was defending his title, and Olli Pekka from Finland.
Both had one win each, which meant each team, had to sail another race, to determine the final positions. This was as exciting as it could get. The T-20 of sailing, sitting on the umpire’s boat, I had the front row seat.
Places changed, no one knew who was going to win until the last moment. There was a fierce tacking match with the 30 kg lighter Farokh Tarapore and R. Mahesh. With 15 – 20 knot breezes, Farokh went on to prove that it is pure technique and skill that wins you matches. Farokh beat Mahesh, in an epic race to finish 3rd overall.
The Final was just as exciting, Olli Pekka was ahead of Arbuzov after the first leg, but ended up having a luffing match near the bottom mark. This cost the Finnish team a great deal, as they cork – screwed dangerously with the spinnaker, nearly losing control.. The bow – man Jonas definitely deserves a special mention, as he handles the entire fore deck single handedly. But even the experience of America’s Cup helm (ITA) Jes Grahm Hansen on board couldn’t help them.
The Russian team, skippered by Arbuzov, showed us why he was ranked 15 in the world, by clinching the title for the 2nd time.
The Mumbai International Match Race – 2008, organized by the Match Racing Association of India was a well run event, in spite of all the problems it faced. Right from the Mumbai Terror attacks, to the recession – leading to lack of sponsorship. A big thank you to West Coast Marine and the Indian Navy and H2O who made this event possible.”
For further details do refer the MRAI website http://www.mrai.in/
I sailed the 420 nationals that was hosted by the Royal Madras Yacht Club in September 2008. I had just finished my exams ... and was in the middle of practical exams when I got sucked into sailing the 420 with Pallavi - another one from Chennai this time. The only difference was that I was going to be helming. For about a week or so we practiced together... she would come over to the club after school, I would make it between studying for my practical exams. It was great stepping back into the 420. Memories came flooding back... I remembered why I loved the boat so much. I started racing with no great expectations... I was looking at it more as a great way to give something back, in the way of teaching someone. And also to see if I had it in me to helm this boat. She weighed 43 kilos and I was about 64, The weight was definitely in the wrong place, but I think we did quite well in the 15 knot breeze. We started off finished 8th and 7th in the first few races. But towards the end we started to get a little more confident, finishing 4th and finally 3rd overall in the last few races.
We finished a creditable 5th overall out of 15 and won the Women's National Title. It felt great! Thanks Pallavi for the opportunity, I had a blast :)
I also sailed the J24 and match raced for the first time. It was an all girls team with Pallavi Naik (Goa) skipper, Trisha Sabir (Goa), Alekhya (Hyd) and I (Mad) lol...haha We called ourselves the 'Good Fun Team'. It was the selection trials for the women and men's teams to take part in the Regional Finals that was going to held in Bombay in Oct 2008. We had had hardly 1 day before the selection trials to finally sail together as a team as every one was either falling sick,,, or getting sea sick ;)
All in all it was another great experience, We beat Ayesha's team by the skin of our teeth. Our first surprise win was beating Ashim Mongia after being nearly 20 boat lengths behind... that was an amazing race,,, we just crept up from behind him and stole his thunder!... We couldn't believe our luck. Then we had mishaps with our Jib Halyard.... which didn't go up around the windward mark, We lost to Ayesha and had an action replay with Barik.
Both Ayesha and us were tied...but she would win the tie as she had beaten us. We thought all was lost, until we realized that there was a knockout race for the 5,6,7,8,9,10,11 and 12th places. But even then, only if we got to sail against Ayesha did we have a chance of winning. To our luck , we were 9th and 10th.
The pressure was on... Ayesha was clear ahead, but still had an outstanding penalty! Suddenly we notice near the windward mark, she was head to wind and we passed her. And went on to win that race by a mile.
We later realized that Ayesha, had no idea how to do a penalty after all the match racing she has done... she actually did 2 tacks and 2 gybes... So we won.!!!! In spite of all the odds... We get to participate in the Regional Finals, International Mumbai Match race and most probably the Nations Cup 2009 in Brazil :D Woohooo!!!!
