Male [Maldives], August 22 : Harish Muthu and Kishore Kumar created history by progressing to the quarterfinals of the Asian Surfing Championships 2024 in the men's open and U-18 categories respectively on Thursday.
The competition which is a qualifier for the Asian Games 2026 is being held at Thulusdhoo in Maldives had eight Indians in the fray across four categories, as per a press release from the Surfing Federation of India (SFI).
Harish, who hails from Tamil Nadu had to face a stiff challenge in the quarterfinals from Joi Satriawan of Indonesia and Kaisei Adachi of Japan who finished first and second respectively. Harish finished third in the quarterfinals with a score of 6.76. Earlier he finished second in Heat 1 of Round 3 with a score of 8.43 with two best scores of 5.33 and 3.10 in four waves to qualify for the quarterfinals.
Indian child prodigy, Kishore Kumar booked his quarterfinal spot in the U-18 category by achieving a score of 14.33, the highest by any surfer in Round 3. He scored a two waves score of 6.83 and 7.5 to finish on top of Heat 2 of Round 3, which is also the highest score of all the Indian surfers in the championship so far. Kishore will be up against Chinese Taipie's John Chan and Sayyid Salahudheen of Maldives in Heat 3 of the quarterfinals which is scheduled for tomorrow.
Speaking on his achievement, Harish M stated, "I am proud of my performance in the Championships even though I could not make it into the semis. This was a great experience for me to compete amongst the top-ranked Asian surfers and I have learned a lot from this competition."
Arun Vasu, President of the Surfing Federation of India, shared his excitement. "It is exhilarating to see these young Indian surfers not just compete but dominate on the international stage. They have been relentless in their pursuit of excellence, and their hard work is paying off. These moments are the culmination of countless hours of training, and they are sending a powerful message to the world."
"India is here to compete at the highest levels. As a Federation, we have poured our efforts into nurturing this talent, fostering their competitiveness through year-round competitions. Our ultimate goal is to bring medals home to India through surfing. What is even more inspiring is that every one of these surfers comes from the fishing communities of Tamil Nadu, proving that with passion and dedication, the sky is the limit," he concluded.
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