The Yachting Association of India (YAI) will hold a regatta to break the stand-off between two warring sailors – Varsha Gautham and Ekta Yadav – over a place in India’s Asian Games squad for 49er FX team.

With the two warring parties filing counter petitions in Delhi High Court, the YAI and Indian Olympic Association were at odds as they were both backing the opposite party. However, the court has now ruled that a fresh regatta should be held to break the impasse.

“The regatta will be held in Jakarta between August 4-8. Whoever wins will make the final list,” said Captain Ajay Narang, who is a senior official at YAI.

There is, however, an issue over the availability of the course in Jakarta. YAI has written to its Indonesian counterpart with a request to host the regatta as all its equipment has been transported to the venue where the Games are scheduled to be held in August.

Narang further said that the YAI intends to make the regatta open to other contenders as well and does not want to restrict the trial to just the warring duo.

Selection mess

The stand-off stems from a botched up selection process conducted by the YAI and the IOA’s premature announcement of the final squad. The YAI had picked Ekta and her crew member Shaila Charis to represent India in Indonesia, even as Varsha and partner Sweta Shervegar were left out.

Ekta and Shaila had won bronze at the Asian Sailing Championship (ASC), while Varsha and Sweta had finished ahead of their compatriots to win silver. The superior medal should have been enough to secure a berth for Varsha and Sweta, but the other two had topped the trials in Chennai and the YAI’s selection committee decided to pick the former pair.

Varsha then filed a petition in court citing an arbitrary selection procedure. The Indian Olympic Association, after being apprised of the situation, recommended the names of Varsha and Sweta pending the judgment of the Delhi High Court.

The case was disposed off on July 7, with Justice Vibhu Bakhru stated that “this court is certainly not equipped to evaluate the merits of their decision and the same is beyond the scope of judicial review.”

The court further stated that it could not interfere in the selection matters of the YAI.

IOA’s role

However, IOA on July 7 named Varsha and Sweta as the official entry.

“We have named Varsha and Shweta in place of Ekta and Shaila. Varsha and Shweta are silver medallists in the Asian Championships while Ekta and Saila are bronze medallists,” IOA chief Narinder Batra had said then.

Left aggrieved by the premature announcement, Ekta also has approached the court seeking redressal.