Varsha Gautham & Sweta Shervegar gives India silver in the 49er FX Women event. The Indian duo bagged the second spot with the cumulative 40 Net Points. The duo also won Silver in the Asia Sailing Championship (ASC) earlier this year.
Varsha Gautham who won bronze in 2014 Asian games almost missed out representing India in the Asia Games as both Varsha and her partner Sweta’s name went missing from the qualification list. YAI (Yachting Association of India) overlooked Varsha-Sweta’s silver in ASC he selection criteria originally set by them to make the cut for Asiad. Instead, AI went ahead with the names of Ekta Yadav and Shaila Charles who had finished third in that event.
YAI stated that Ekta and Shaila did well in the qualifying trails held in Chennai. But this was against their policy which clearly states, “The results of Indian athletes/teams at ASC will be provided to the internal and external selectors so as to select the best athletes/teams to represent India at the Asian Games.”
Varsha took the matter to the Delhi High Court stating that YAI hadn’t made itself clear about the selection process. The court at first asked YAI to conduct a race between two teams in Jakarta and to select the winner but Asian games organizing committee failed to give a nod. So, subsequently, the court asked the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) to pick a team based on the merits. IOA went on with Varsha and Sweta.
The pair didn’t disappoint at all as they finished second best.
