Last Chance Regatta: Nethra Kumanan secures a quota for Paris Olympics

Nethra Kumanan secured her ticket to the Paris Olympics through the Emerging Nations Program (ENP), despite not finishing in the top three positions in the final ranking of the Women's One-Person Dinghy, ILCA 6 event, at the Last Chance Regatta in Hyères, France on Friday.

The star Indian sailor will be heading to her second consecutive Olympics. She finished in 5th position in the final ranking with a total of 67 net points out of 10 races. The top three sailors secured direct quotas for the Olympics, while one quota was reserved for the best-placed non-qualified ENP sailor.

Nethra also qualified for the medal race, where she finished in 5th position to confirm her spot at the prestigious event. She is the second Indian sailor to secure a spot at the Paris Olympics after Vishnu Saravanan in the men's ILCA7 event.

At this event, Nethra displayed remarkable consistency, finishing within the top 10 in nine out of the ten races, including a 4th place finish in race 5. Sailors from Romania, Cyprus, and Slovenia secured the final three available spots in this discipline for the Paris Olympics.

On the contrary, other Indian sailors like Prince Noble and Manu Francis had below-average performances as they missed out on the quota in the Men's skiff – 49er category, where India had a quota spot at the Tokyo Olympics.