ISA World Surfing Games 2023: India to send a four-member team to El Salvador
ISA World Surfing Games will be a qualifying event for the Paris 2024 Olympics. It will be the first time that an Indian team will participate in the annual event.
Surfing
Indian surfers Ajeesh Ali, Sanjay Selvamani, Sivaraj Babu and Ramesh Budihal will participate at the ISA World Surfing Games 2023 in El Salvador in May-June later this year.
It will be for the first time that an Indian surfing team will take part in the annual ISA World Surfing Games, which has been held since 1964. The four-member Indian surfing team was selected by the Surfing Federation of India (SFI) after a three-stage selection process.
The 2023 edition of the ISA World Surfing Games is also a qualifying event for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
Surfing made its Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020 with two medal events - men's shortboard and women's shortboard. Brazil’s Italo Ferreira and Carissa Moore of the USA won the men’s and women’s gold medals, respectively.
The Paris 2024 Olympic Games, meanwhile, will see a total of 48 athletes competing, 24 in the women's competition and 24 in the men's. This number is eight more compared to the number of competitors at Tokyo 2020.
India’s four-member team is currently attending a 14-day training in Sri Lanka under India’s surfing coach Patrick Renaud, a former South African professional surfer who coached the English Surf team which finished fourth in the European Surfing Championships.
The Indian surfing team will continue to train under Patrick Renaud after the Sri Lanka camp and is likely to participate in international tournaments in the Maldives and Sri Lanka to increase exposure ahead of the El Salvador meet.