Sailing
How Army man Vishnu Saravanan honoured family's sailing legacy qualifying for Tokyo Olympics
Vishnu Saravanan became the second Indian sailor to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics, after he finished at the first spot in the medal race of Laser Standard category.
Vishnu Saravanan qualified for Tokyo Olympics (Source: SailCoach Making You Better)
Vishnu Saravanan became the second Indian sailor to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics, after he finished at the third spot in the Laser Standard category and first in the medal race at the ongoing Mussanah Open Sailing Championship, earlier today.
A Naib Subedar in the Indian Army, Vishnu comes from a family of sailors. He picked up the sport and blossomed further under the watchful eyes of his father and coach Saravanan. Like Vishnu, his father Saravanan too served in the Indian Army as a Subedar.
After picking up the basics of the sport from his father and winning quite a few national-level competitions, Vishnu enrolled on the Boys Sports Company, MEG and Centre in the year 2014.
Thanks to his consistent performances, the now 22-year-old Vishnu was enrolled in MEG and Centre as Junior Commissioned Officer in the year 2017. With his qualification, Vishnu has become just the eleventh Indian sailor to qualify for the Olympics.
In fact, Vishnu is just the second Indian sailor after Nethra Kumanan to earn a direct qualification to the Olympics in sailing. All the remaining nine represented the country at the Olympics qualified to fill up the unfilled quotas.
Vishnu's sister – Ramya Saravanan too is an international sailor. She, too, was in the fray for an Olympic ticket at the ongoing Mussanah Open Sailing Championship but missed out having finished sixth in the Laser Radial Class event.
