Five women sailors from the city aim for world championship

Prominent sailor Dr Rohini Rau, who took a seven-year sabbatical from competitive sailing, is back in the international sailing circuit. She has stepped up to inspire an all women Indian team for the upcoming J80 World Championship to be held in Spain. Rohini, who leads the first ever J80 Indian Women’s Sailing team, talks about taking on fresh challenges and why more women should come forward and take up sailing.

“It is for the first time, India is sending an all women’s team to the world championship. My first task was to put a team of women sailors who could sail a J80 sportsboat with some expertise. I took this opportunity because this is a great chance to promote sailing as a sport among women and sailing in general in India. Currently, we are undergoing vigorous training at the Royal Madras Yacht Club under coach Chinna Reddy,” says Rohini.

Apart from Rohini, the six-member team includes Tulsi Movva, Yashna Vummidi, Alekhya Sudam, Aishwarya Nenduchezhian and Tejashree. “Alekhya is from Hyderabad and she is my former teammate. Aishwarya is an Asian Games bronze medallist. Tulsi and Tejashree are two upcoming sailors who have been doing well in the junior category. Finding the last person was another challenging task for me. So, the maximum crew weight in swimming apparel is 350 kg and the last person to join has to weigh about 60 kg and physically fit at the same time.  I roped in Yashna, a former national-level swimmer, who will be sailing her very first sailing event,” adds Rohini.     

Sailing is one of the oldest competitions in the Olympics and Rohini wanted more people to come forward and be part of it. “I hope through this we could lift the spirits of women and sport in India. People belonging to any age group can be a sailor. Also, I wanted to increase awareness of environmental hazards (plastic pollution in oceans) and its timely protection,” she remarks.