Mangalore, June 2 Under tough and challenging conditions, Tamil Nadu surfers stood tall to dominate the proceedings on day two of the 4th Indian Open of Surfing at the Sasihithlu beach, here on Friday.
The men's open category will see an all Tamil Nadu semifinal on June 3. Karnataka's Sinchana Gowda and Pradeep Pujar kept the host' hopes afloat as they booked their slot in the finals of women's Open and Groms (16 and Under) Boys categories respectively.
The highlight of the day, however, were Tamil Nadu Surfers Srikanth D and Kishore Kumar (13 points) as the former managed to score the highest points in the men's open category while the latter managed 11.67 points, the highest in the Groms (16 & Under Boys Categories). Sugar Banarse from Goa managed to score the highest points in the women's open category gathering a total of 10.17.
The day began with the semifinal encounter in the women's open surf category which saw 17-year-old Sugar Banarse from Goa impressing all the judges with her surfing. Gathering the highest points (10.17) amongst the women who made it to the finals, Sugar will look forward to defending her title .
Tamil Nadu's Kamali Moorthy (8.50) and Shrishti Selvam (4.74) alongwith Karnataka's Sinchana Gowda (5.17) were amongst the other three surfers who advanced for the finals. Kamali will also compete in the finals of the groms (16 & under) girls surf category on Saturday.
"I feel elated to be in the finals and there is a little pressure on me as well as I would be having the responsibility to defend my title, given the tough competition and conditions. But I'll leave no stone unturned to walk away with the national championship in the Women's Open category. Just hoping for the best for myself tomorrow," Sugar said after booking her slot in the finals.
The proceedings of the Men's Open Category continued from last day and 28 surfers battled it out to enter the knockout rounds where Srikanth D (13.00), Kishore Kumar (11.66), Surya P (8.20), Maninkandan I (7.36), Manivannan T (7.33), Manikandan M (7.03), Raghul Paneerselvam(6.97) Selvam M (6.76), Dinesh Selvamani(6.63), Sathish Sarvanan(6.47) SanjaiKumar S(6.37), , Ruban V(6.04), Santosh M(5.77), Subramani M(4.64) were amongst the surfers who outshone their competitors to book their quarterfinal berths.
Later in the day, the quarter finals saw Sanjaikumar S, Srikanth D, Raghul Paneerselvam, Sathhish Sarvanan, Manikandan M, Kishore Kumar, Santhosh M and Surya P advancing to the semis which are scheduled to be played tomorrow early morning.
The highest scorer of the day after reaching the finals, Srikanth D, said: "The waves were comparatively smaller than from the previous day, but I am happy to do well today. My only objective is to continue the tempo and go beyond every other surfer to win the Men's Open title, despite having stiff competition from them".
The Groms Boys (U16) category semifinals today saw Tamil boys rocking the show as 3 out of 4 surfers who have made it into the finals belong to Tamil Nadu.
Kishore emerged as the highest scorer in his category for a second consecutive day (11.67) as he stunned everyone with his stellar performance. Tayin Arun with 9.17 score and Harish P with 6.33 score were other boys from Tamil Nadu to book their final berths. Karnataka's only hope Pradeep Pujar earned 4.30 to reach the finals.
Speaking after booking his Finals slot Kishore Kumar said, "I am thankful to the Surfing Federation India for organizing this national championship as surfers like me use this platform to shine and rise, which also gives us confidence and boosts our morale to build our career in the sports. Also I am grateful to all the sponsors for putting their faith in all of us. I look forward to defending my national championship title tomorrow and will do my best on the waters."
The final day of the 4th edition of the Indian Open of Surfing will witness the semi-finals & finals of the men's open surf category along with the finals of the Groms Boys & Girls (16 & under) and finals of the women open surf categories.
The three-day premier surfing competition of India. which is being hosted by Mantra Surf Club at Sasihithlu beach, Mangalore, Karnataka is the official national championship of the Surfing Federation of India and also recognised by the International Surfing Association.
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