Saravanan qualifies for second successive Olympics
The 24-year-old from Vellore finished 26th out of 152 sailors at the ILCA 7 World Championships to make the Paris cut.
Asian Games bronze medallist Vishnu Saravanan has become the first Indian sailor to qualify for successive Olympics by making the cut for Paris Games. The 24-year-old from Vellore finished 26th out of 152 sailors at the ILCA 7 World Championships held in Adelaide on Wednesday. The only other Indian in the fray, Mohit Saini, finished 136th. So far, Sarvanan is the only Indian sailor to qualify for this year's Olympics.
A Subedar from the Mumbai-based Army Yachting Node, Saravanan had finished 20th overall among 35 competitors at the Tokyo Games. In Adelaide, Saravanan was the best placed Asian, finishing ahead of Hangzhou Asian Games gold medallist from Singapore Lo Jun Han Ryan (42nd). Asian Championships gold and silver medallists — Hong Kong's Nicholas Halliday and Thailand's Arthit Mikhail Romanyk — finished 31st and 62nd respectively.
Saravanan, an under-21 World Championships bronze medallist, concluded the competition with an overall score of 174. Following the standard rule, his least score of 49 among ten races was subtracted, resulting in a his net score of 125. Tokyo Olympics gold medallist Matthew Wearn of Australia won the competition with a net score of 24.
Like most sports, the Olympic quota in sailing belongs to the NOC but since Saravanan is by far country's best sailor in the ILCA 7 class, his ticket to Paris is all but secure. Besides Saravanan, Varun Thakkar, KC Ganapathy, and Nethra Kumanan had qualified for Tokyo Olympics but with Last Chance Regatta being the only Olympic qualifier left, chances of Saravanan having company in Paris look unlikely. Last Chance Regatta will be held in Hyeres, France in April.
Kumanan, 26, competed in the ILCA6 Women’s World Championships 2024 in Mar del Plata, Argentina (Jan 5-10) but her 41st-place finish was not enough to earn her a Paris quota. KC Ganapathy and Varun Thakkar, the 2021 Asian champions, finished eighth in men's skiff (49er class) at the Asian Championships in December to miss the cut.
Paris 2024 will feature ten sailing events with a total athlete quota of 330, 20 less than Tokyo. Both events and athlete quota are equally split between men and women and an NOC may enter only one boat per event.
