Chennai-based Nethra Kumanan created historical past, changing into the first Indian woman sailor to safe an Olympic quota place by taking an unassailable lead within the Laser Radial occasion within the Mussanah Open Championship on Wednesday (April 7). Thanks to Kumanan’s large 21-point lead over her closest competitor, all that the 22-year-old wants to do on Thursday is simply full the Medal race with none incident.
Kumanan was in chic kind, ending Race 9 and 10 in first and second positions, respectively. The first Indian woman to win a crusing World Cup medal final 12 months has 18 nett factors, whereas her nearest rival, Hong Kong’s Stephanie Norton, is positioned fourth with 41 factors going into Thursday’s Medal race.
Kudos to Nethra Kumanan on creating historical past by changing into the first Indian woman sailor [?][?][?] to qualify for @Olympics #Tokyo2020
Great job @nettienetty!#JeetengeOlympics #RoadToTokyo@KirenRijiju @Tokyo2020 @WeAreTeamIndia pic.twitter.com/b3Z98GB97P
— SAIMedia (@Media_SAI) April 8, 2021
An engineering pupil on the SRM College in Chennai, Kumanan has represented the nation on the 2014 and 2018 Asian Games in Incheon and Jakarta, respectively. Kumanan mentioned a one-and-a-half 12 months teaching stint underneath Hungarian coach Tamas Eszes at Gran Canaria in Spain has made a giant distinction.
“In Grand Canaria, I trained with a lot of quality international sailors that helped me a lot,” the winner of the Sailing World Cup sequence bronze in Miami final 12 months mentioned.
Four Indian sailors enter Tokyo Olympics
In a historic first for India, 4 sailors from the nation will compete at this 12 months’s Olympics after Vishnu Saravanan and the pair of Ganapathy Chengappa and Varun Thakkar made the reduce for Tokyo on the Asian Qualifiers in Oman on Thursday (April 8).
It can be the first time that India will compete in three crusing occasions within the Olympics. So far, India had competed in just one occasion in all the sooner Olympics although two sailors represented the nation on 4 events.
“Yes, history has been scripted. Four Indian sailors have qualified for Olympics to compete in three events. It’s the maximum number of sailors qualified and also in number of events,” Yachting Association of India joint secretary basic Capt Jitendra Dixit informed information company PTI.
Tomasz Januszewski, the Indian crusing coach, mentioned it was a results of ‘years of hard work by sailors, their parents and coaches’.
“Sincere congratulations to our champions for creating this historic day and taking Indian sailing to a whole new level,” he mentioned from Oman.
He additionally thanked the Sports Ministry, the Sports Authority of India and the Yachting Association of India for fixed help.
Later, the duo of Chengappa and Thakkar completed on prime of the factors desk within the 49er Class. The two had gained a bronze medal within the 2018 Asian Games in Indonesia.
“I congratulate Indian athletes Nethra Kumanan, KC Ganapathy and Varun Thakkar who have qualified for Tokyo Olympic in sailing. I’m particularly proud of the quota of Nethra, who is India’s first-ever female sailor to qualify for the Olympics!” tweeted sports activities minister Kiren Rijiju.
(with company inputs)
