The Indian duo, who led a small bunch of six teams after six races yesterday, finished third in the seventh race but were disqualified later to pick up seven penalty points after one of the competing teams, Malaysia, protested against one of their manoeuvres and it was upheld by the race organisers at Wangsan Sailing Marina.
But, a third-place finish in the eighth race put them on third with four more rounds to go into the competition.
Asked about the duo's chances now, he said since the margin separating the top three teams in the class was small, anything can happen over the last four races.
Thailand duo of N Poonpat and Waiwai Nichapa led the field with 12 penalty points, followed by Singapore (13.0 penalty points). India were third with 16 while Malaysia, who spoilt the Indians' day, were fourth after accumulating 10 more penalty points.
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Indian sailors continued to be in the middle or rear of the pack in four other class of races.
In the corresponding women's class, India's Ramya Sarvanan slipped down a rung from yesterday's position and was lying seventh out of eight competitors with 43 net penalties after one discard.
After the eighth race in the women's laser radial class, a one-person dinghy, Nethra Kumanan was still lying seventh with 42 net penalties.
In the Hobie 16 Open multihull class of two-person boats, India's men's pair of Brijraj Verma and Pankaj Kumar were maintaining fifth position, out of nine teams, with a net penalty point tally of 32.