Nethra Kumanan rose to the top of the standings in the women’s Laser Radial class after four races in the Mussanah Open Sailing Championships, an Olympic qualifier for Asia and Africa, with a win and a second place finish in the two races on Sunday on the Gulf of Oman off the Millennium Resort in Musannah, 130km away from the Oman Capital of Muscat.
In a class in which there is just one qualification slot available for Asians, Ramya Saravanan and Harshita Tomar are placed third and fourth, one point apart. They trail the Netherlands’ Emma Charlotte Jeanne Savelon who won the Sunday’s second race. It was a day Koreans Jia Kim and Hyewon Jung, who won a race each on the opening day, would like to forget.
The 23-year-old Nethra Kumanan, the first Indian woman to win a Sailing World Cup medal by finishing third in the Hempel World Series in Miami last year, showed grit and resilience on Sunday in bouncing back after a seventh-place finish in the second race on Saturday. Clearly, she is determined to find rewards for training in the European Sailing Academy in Gran Canaria, Spain.
Meanwhile, Vishnu Saravanan also did not let thoughts of a 11th place finish in the second race on Saturday and scripted two good runs on Sunday, finishing second and fourth to rise to third place behind Singapore’s Ryan Lo Jun Han and Thailand’s Keerati Bulong. The three sailors have 9 points each but are ranked in that order on the basis of their placings in the most recent race.
The Indian pairs of KC Ganapathy and Varun Thakkar (Laser Standard) and Ekta Yadav and Ritika Dangi (Laser Radial) are in the fourth place respectively after six races each. Their classes offer two qualification spots each in the Tokyo Olympic Games and the Indian teams will have to up the game in the coming races.
There is a long way to go before the Olympic qualifiers are spotted as the regatta is scheduled to conclude on Thursday.
The results (Indian placings with nett scores after two days):
Laser (Four races, one discard shown in bold): 3. Vishnu Saravanan 9 (3, 11, 2, 4); 7. Upamanyu Dutta 22 (6, 5, 13, 11); 14. Mohit Saini 28 (14, 9, 14, 5); 15. Gitesh 30 (13, 19, 11, 6). 18. Ram Milan Yadav 48 (12, 17, 19, 19).
Laser Radial (Four races, one discard shown in bold): 1. Nethra Kumanan 5 (2, 7, 1, 2); 3. Ramya Saravanan 12 (13 DSQ, 3, 5, 4); 4. Harshita Tomar 13 (4 2, 9, 7); 12. Jayalakshmi Sundaravadivel 32 (11, 10, 12, 11).
49er (Six races, one discard shown in bold): 4. KC Ganapathy and Varun Thakkar 21 points (5, 10, 3, 4, 5, 4); 11. Prince Kurisinkal Noble and Manu Francis 40 (2, 11, 13, 3, 15 DNF, 11); 13. Sandip Jain and Munna Pandit 45 (12, 13, 4, 15UFD, 11, 5).
49er FX (Six races, one discard shown in bold): 4. Ekta Yadav and Ritika Dangi 15 points (3, 4, 1, 4, 4, 3).
RS:X (Men) (Five races, one discard shown in bold): 6. Ebad Ali 20 points (3, 7, 4, 10, 6); 7. Jerome Kumar Savarimuthu 23 (11, 9, 6, 4, 4).
RS: X (Women) (Five races, one discard shown in bold): 3. Ishwarya Ganesh 12 points (2, 3, 3, 4 DNF, 4 NSC).
Image: Nethra Kumanan (Courtesy: Bogee Toth, European Sailing Academy, Gran Canaria, via Nethra’s FB page)
