The Indian sailing team consisting of Trunal Helegaonkar of West Coast Marine Yacht Services, and multi-medal winning veteran Farokh Tarapore surprised the sailing world with a silver medal in the open match racing event at the Shanwei Waters Sports Complex in Guangzhou.

In the process, they had an exciting Best of 5 semi-final against China, beating them ultimately after being 2 down in the beginning.

The Indian team of Balraj, Trunal Helegaonkar, Atool Sinha, Farokh Tarapore and Shekhar Singh Yadav were beaten 0-3 in the best-of-five final by Japan while the bronze went to South Korea.

“We could have won the gold had it not been for the heavy winds that upset our calculations. The wind favoured the Japanese as we had done practice in lighter winds, between 4-6 knots at home in Mumbai and elsewhere,” Yadav said.

“We decided to take it one race at a time and went through. The wind was then 10-12 knots,” he said.

The sailing coach said the team had come to this city with the intention of winning gold medal in Open Match Racing and Laser Radial in which Rajesh Chaudhary was attempting to win a third medal in as many editions after winning bronze in 2002 in Busan and 2006 in Doha.

West Coast Marine Yacht Services congratulates the Indian Team, and Trunal for keeping the Indian flag flying high, and once again creating a mark for our beloved sport of sailing.