Sailing
Chennai's Nethra Kumanan becomes first Indian woman sailor to qualify for Olympics
Chennai lass Nethra Kumanan becomes the first Indian woman to qualify for the Olympics in sailing as she confirms a Tokyo Olympics berth at Asian and African Olympic Qualifier.
Nethra Kumanan (Source: SAI)
Chennai lass Nethra Kumanan becomes the first Indian woman to qualify for the Olympics in sailing as she confirms a Tokyo Olympics berth on Wednesday. Kumaran is competing at the Mussanah Open Sailing Championship, an Asian & African Olympic qualifier tournament in the Laser Radial category. After finishing 10 races in the category, Kumaran remains on top.
In the last day of the tournament tomorrow, she just has to finish the Medal Race to officially be recognised as Qualified for Tokyo Olympics. Nethra was the first woman from India to win a medal in the Sailing World Cup in 2020, where she clinched a bronze in Miami, Unites States of America.
The Indian, who trains at the Canary Islands in Spain, also represented the country in the 2014 and the 2018 Asian Games that was held at Jakarta. She had finished fourth in the same event in the last edition of the Asian Games, and attributed her calm temperament for her medal-winning performance this time around in the World Cup.
Two other Indians, KC Ganapathy and Varun Thakkar (51 points) are also in the race to qualify for Olympics in the 49er category, as they lead after 15 races on Wednesday with 61 points and net point of 51 (Best of 14). They will guarantee a berth in Tokyo Olympics, if they finish in top-6 in the medal race.
Laser Radial (10 races): 1. Nethra Kumanan 18 (2, 7, 1, 2, 1, 1, 3, 5, 1, 2); 3. Ramya Saravanan 39 (13 DSQ, 3, 5, 4, 3, 5, 8, 4, 2, 5); 5. Harshita Tomar 43 (4 2, 9, 7, 7, 8, 1, 1, 6, 7); 12. Jayalakshmi Sundaravadivel 101 (11, 10, 12, 11, 12, 11, 11, 11, 12, 12).
Skiff 49er (15 races): 1. KC Ganapathy and Varun Thakkar 51 points (5, 10, 3, 4, 5, 3, 3, 1, 2, 7, 5, 4, 4, 2, 3); 11. Prince Kurisinkal Noble and Manu Francis 120 (2, 11, 13, 3, 15 DNF, 10, 7, 5, 6, 11, 10, 10, 15 UFD, 9, 8); 12. Sandip Jain and Munna Pandit 123 (12, 13, 4, 15UFD, 11, 4, 13, 9, 8, 10, 6, 6, 10, 12, 4).
