Chennai surfers dominate
The second edition of the Indian Open of Surfing witnessed a dominant display by entrants from Chennai at Mangalore on Saturday. In near perfect conditions, the Chennai contingent nearly walked away with semifinal spots in all the categories, except for the women’s open category that was dominated by the local girls.
The second edition of the Indian open of Surfing at the Sasihithlu Beach is part of the Karnataka Beach Festival and is recognised by the Surfing Federation of India. The threeday event has been organised by the Mantra Surf Club in association with the Kanara Water Sports Promotion Council.
The penultimate day consisted of the first and second rounds of the juniors (17-21 years) event, the first round for the Women’s open category, the second round of the senior (2230) and Groms (U-16) categories.
The semi-finals and final rounds for all the categories and the stage two of the men’s SUP race will be held on Sunday.
The day began on an energetic note with the juniors and the two rounds saw six young talents out of 23 qualify for the semi finals. Chennai’s Manivannan T., Surya P., Ajith Govind, Rahul Govind and Sateesh went through along with Ramesh, the lone surfer from Kerala.
The women’s open category brought cheer for local supporters with three out of the eight semi-finalists hailing from Mangalore. Tanvi Jagadish, Aneesha Naik and Sinchana Gowda along with Chennai’s Vilassini Sundar and Shristi Selvam, Pondicherry surfer Suhasini Damian, Manipal surfer Ishita Malviya and Russian surfer Olga Kosenko made it to the semis.
The men’s senior category witnessed complete domination by Tamil Nadu who had six out of the eight semi-finalists.
The women’s open category brought cheer for local supporters with three out of the eight semi-finalists hailing from Mangalore