Ravi Banneoulu takes overall lead on fourth day of Monsoon Regatta

National champion Ravi Banneoulu surged to the top of the leaderboard on the fourth day of the 27th Monsoon Regatta at Hussain Sagar Lake. With two races remaining, the battle for overall honours remains open among the leading contenders

Hyderabad: Ravi Banneoulu of Telangana, the reigning national champion, proved his mettle by soaring to the top of the leaderboard, knocking out all competition and gunning for gold on the fourth day of the 27th Monsoon Regatta, which saw twists of fortune, skilful sailing and unpredictable changes in leaderboard positions at Hussain Sagar Lake here on Friday.

The last race of the day saw Ravi, in characteristic style, lead from start to finish to clinch a win and top the charts.

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Narasimha Vutla of Telangana has moved up to overall second, while local girl Rameeza from Rainbow Homes has climbed to third spot on the board.

Rameeza Bhanu of Telangana Rainbow Homes also saw a change in fortune and now leads the girls in the under-15 category, positioning herself to also clinch the bronze overall across genders. A gold and a bronze will be a first for her.

With still two races to go tomorrow, the positions are close enough to make the coveted Monsoon Regatta Trophy and the SH Babu Memorial Trophy anybody’s to win, while the top contenders are Ravi and Narasimha.

In the Laser boys and girls categories, the positions remained unchanged, with Preeth Siwal and Katyayani Kaushik heading for gold with certainty.

In the International 420 class, Badrinath Nirudu and Rishwita pipped top seeds Chandralekha and Dhanush, but led by only one point, leaving the podium decisions to tomorrow’s races.

In the 29er Skiffs, Vinod Dandu lost his lead held over the last three days to the more experienced and Asian Games selectee Sharanya Jadhav of the Navy. Tied at the top, they need to race it out for gold tomorrow.

Penalty points at close of the fourth day:

Under-16: Optimist class: 1. B. Ravi Kumar (TSA) 12, 2. V. Narasimha (TSA) 14, 3. Sk. Rameeza Bhanu (TSA) 21.

Optimist Green Fleet: 1. Veer Vignesh Bangari (TSA) 7, 2. Md Rehman (TSA) 10, 3. Anindita Barman (TSA) 25.

420 Mixed class: 1. Badrinath Nirudu & Rishwitha Sunchanakota (TSA) 8, 2. Chandralekha Tattari & J. Dhanush (TSA) 9, 3. J. Sirisha & Ram Charan (TSA) 18.

Class-29er: 1. Sharanya Yuvaraj Jadhav & Shivam Walmiki (NYSC) 8, 2. Vinod Dandu & Aravind Maloth (TSA) 8, 3. Mohammed Rizwan & Dhoki Sathwik 16.

Class ILCA 4: Boys: 1. Preet Siwal (NYSC) 6, 2. Hriday Jairam Joshi (NYSC) 12, 3. Kounik Vardhan (TSA) 21.

Class ILCA 4: Girls: 1. Katyayani Kaushik (INWTC) 6, 2. Krithika Vishwanathan (SSC) 13, 3. Ramyasri Challa (TSA) 14.