For Naval Commander Atool Sinha, the sombre story continues. Just when it seemed that he finally found the missing ingredient to surge to the title, his nemesis Ayaz Shaikh stepped up the ante. The end result once again was very familiar — Ayaz defeated Atool to clinch the Match Racing championship at the Monsoon Regatta.
Ayaz, who won Race One and Race Two of the best-of-seven finals series, was completely taken aback by a resurgent Atool in the third race. After forcing a penalty on Ayaz at the initial stage of the race, Atool manoeuvred his boat with immaculate control to force one more on his rival. Ayaz, however, waited till the final stretch to perform his mandatory jibe that was brought upon him due to the penalty. After catching up with Atool, Ayaz attempted a cunning jibe-and-overtake manoeuvre, but Atool proved too smart, forcing another penalty on Ayaz to win Race 3. The way Atool reduced the series deficit to 1-2 gave hopes that the wind was blowing in his favour. But Ayaz struck back on Race Four, taking an early lead which he maintained all the way till end to take a healthy 3-1 lead.
The pressure was back on Atool. He had to win Race Five to keep himself afloat in the competition.
Unfortunately for Atool, it seemed Ayaz had taken his defeat in the third race to his heart. After taking an early lead in Race Five, Ayaz got set to perform a tack — a manoeuvre in which the bow is turned so that the direction from which the wind blows changes from one side to the other. Atool, who was tailing the leader, also got set to do his tack. However, it turned out Ayaz’s was a false tack — a cunning deception to force Atool into a tricky spot.
The strategy had an unexpected result too as Atool’s bow seemed to have got stuck. Then on, for Ayaz, it was just a smooth sail to finish line and the championship.