Having sailed for more than five years, the talented young pairing of Upamanyu Dutta and Hussain Arsiwala are now ready to break on to the big stage. Their recent success in the Junior 420 National Championship and their close runner-up finish in the Open Class has singled them out as favourites to win accolades in the 420 Class for under-19 sailors in the upcoming Asian Games 2014 in Incheon South Korea.
The talented young team of Upamanyu Dutta & Hussain Arsiwalla (RBYC – Mumbai) won the Spring Chicken Cup for the junior under-19 trophy in the 420 Sailing Nationals 2012, which concluded in Chennai on Sunday, May 27. The Juniors also made a splash in the open event, and the experienced team of Yakobu K & Rajeev Kumar (AWSA – Hyderabad) barely managed to hold on to their leading position in the open class with the 15-year-old young team of Upamanyu Dutta and Hussain Arsiwalla close at their heels. In true championship form, even the last race was critical and the decider for this well contended event of the 12 race series, giving this championship a nail biting finish.
Upamanyu Dutta and Hussain Arsiwalla have just graduated from the single hander Optimist class of boats and this was their first event in the 420 class, a two-man trapeze boat. They are both in Std 10th.Upamanyu is a student of Bombay International School and his crew Hussain, a student of B D Somani International School.
Their immediate international exposure competitions will be the Youth World Championships in Ireland June and the 420 World Championships in Austria in July.
According to Gautam Dutta, Upamanyu’s father and former Asian Games sailing medallist, the YAI is committed to supporting this talented duo and besides these two tournaments there will be around eight to ten events in the buildup to the Asian Games. The duo is currently training under Farokh Tarapore, former World Champion in the 420 Class.
Upamanyu won his first National Championship in the Optimist class of boat when he was just 11 years old and there has been no looking back since then. After that he has collected various accolades nationally & internationally. He won the Hyderabad Monsoon regatta three years in succession and won gold in is committed to support the Qatar International Regatta 2011 “Sail the Gulf Championship”.
Hussain learnt his sailing in Hong Kong, were he was staying earlier, before pairing up with Upamanyu and the duo is now committed to sailing together as they hope to crest new horizons.
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Deepak M Pilankar
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