Laser World Championships sailing: Tokyo Olympian Vishnu Saravanan, Mohit Saini to compete
Last year’s world champion Philipp Buhl of Germany and Tokyo 2020 medallists Tonci Stipanovic of Croatia and Norway’s Hermann Tomasgaard will be in action too.
Tokyo Olympian Vishnu Saravanan and fellow Indian sailor Mohit Saini are set to compete in the men’s Laser World Championships 2021 sailing competition that starts on Tuesday in Barcelona, Spain.
This will be 22-year-old Vishnu Saravanan’s second laser world championships since he finished 84th in the 2019 edition in Sakaiminato, Japan.
Mohit Saini will also be competing in his second laser world meet since Sakaiminato, where he finished 118th.
The laser standard, used in the men's category, is a single-handed dinghy with a single mast.
At the Barcelona International Sailing Center, six qualifying races will be held on the first three days and six final races in the next three days. The 12-race event will conclude on Sunday.
Sailors will earn points based on their finishing positions in each race. Finishing first will fetch 1 point, second place will get 2 and so on.
Once the qualifying races are over after the first three days, the sailors will be divided into two groups (series) based on their positions from the qualifying races.
The two groups will then compete in the final races over the next three days with only the first group eligible to win medals. The sailors in the other group will only race for classification.
At the end of the 12 races, including qualifying and finals, sailors can exclude their two worst finishes.
The sailor with the least points, excluding the worst finishes, will be the winner.
A total of 139 sailors from 44 countries will be in action over the six days.
Last year’s world champion Philipp Buhl of Germany and bronze medallist Tonci Stipanovic of Croatia, a two-time Olympic silver medallist, will be competing too.
Norway’s Hermann Tomasgaard, the bronze medal winner from the Tokyo Olympics, will also participate.
However, Tokyo 2020 champion Matthew Wearn of Australia will skip the event.
Upamanyu Dutta was the sole Indian in the laser world championships last year. He finished in 101st place overall.