Asian Games 2023 sailing: India’s results, scores and medal winners
Vishnu Saravanan, Neha Thakur and Eabad Ali won medals for India at the Hangzhou 2023 sailing events. Get Indian results and scores.
Sailing
Led by Olympians Nethra Kumanan, Vishnu Saravanan, KC Ganapathy and Varun Thakkar, a 16-member Indian sailing competed at the Asian Games 2023 in Hangzhou, the People’s Republic of China.
While the Asian Games kicked off in Hangzhou on September 23, the sailing events began on September 21 at the Ningbo Xiangshan Sailing Centre and concluded on September 27.
India finished with three medals in sailing at Asian Games 2023. Neha Thakur won a silver in girls' dinghy ILCA4 while Olympian Vishnu Saravanan and Eabad Ali bagged bronze medals in men's dinghy ILCA7 and men's windsurfer RS:X events, respectively.
Olympians Varun Thakkar and KC Ganapathy, who won the men's skiff 49er bronze at the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta, featured in the same event at Hangzhou 2023 but had to settle for a fifth-place finish this time 49er is a two-handed skiff-type dinghy (sailing boat).
Nethra Kumanan, who became the first Indian sailor to qualify directly for an Olympic event in 2021, also finished just outside the podium in the women’s dinghy ILCA6 event at Hangzhou.
Sailing was included in the Asian Games for the first time in 1970. After being dropped at the 1974 Games, sailing has been a regular sport at the Asian Games since 1978. After Hangzhou 2023, India’s tally rose to 23 medals - one gold, eight silver and 14 bronze - in sailing at the Asian Games.
Indian sailing legend Farokh Tarapore, a three-time Olympian, is the most successful sailor from the country at the Asian Games. He teamed up with Zarir Karanjia for India’s only Asian Games gold medal in sailing at the 1982 edition and also has two silvers and two bronze medals.
The Asian Games 2023 was also a qualifier for the Paris 2024 Olympics sailing events. Quotas were on offer to the national teams in windsurfing, dinghy and kiteboarding events in men’s and women’s singles categories.
Asian Games 2023: India’s sailing squad
Men’s sailing events: Vishnu Saravanan (ILCA7), Chitresh Tatha (kiteboarding), Jerome Kumar Savarimuthu (iQFoil), Eabad Ali - (RS:X), Adhvait Menon (ILCA4), KC Ganapathy-Varun Thakkar (49er team)
Women’s sailing events: Nethra Kumanan (ILCA6), Ishwariya Ganesh (RS:X), Neha Thakur (ILCA4), Harshita Tomar-Shital Verma (49 er team)
Mixed sailing events: Siddeshwar Indar Doiphode-Ramya Saravanan (Nacra 17), Sudhanshu Shekhar-Preeti Kongara - (470)