Tokyo Olympics sailing: Vishnu Saravanan, Nethra Kumanan fail to qualify for final

Vishnu Saravanan finished 20th overall in the men’s laser standard. Nethra Kumanan finished 35th overall in the women’s laser radial.

2 minBy Rahul Venkat
Nethra Kumanan.
(World Sailing)

A maiden Summer Games outing came to an end for Indian sailors Vishnu Saravanan and Nethra Kumanan at the Tokyo Olympics with neither making the medal round in their respective categories.

Vishnu Saravanan finished 20th overall in the men’s laser standard while Nethra Kumanan was 35th overall in the women’s laser radial after 10 qualifying races each. Only the top 10 compete in the medal round.

At the Enoshima Yacht Harbour on Friday, Vishnu Saravanan recorded his best finish of Tokyo 2020 with third in the ninth qualifying race of the men’s laser standard class. Vishnu then ended his 10th and final qualifying race in 15th, thus ending his campaign in 20th place overall with 156 net points.

Australia’s Matt Wearn topped the qualifying races in the men’s laser with 49 net points.

Vishnu’s fellow Olympic debutant Nethra Kumanan’s campaign also drew to a close as she finished 37th and 38th in the ninth and 10th races, respectively. It gave her an overall position of 35th in the women’s laser radial class.

Nethra Kumanan collected 251 net points. Denmark’s Anne-Marie Rindom topped the women’s laser radial table with 64 net points.

The 23-year-old Nethra Kumanan - the first female Indian sailor to qualify for the Olympics - recorded a best finish of 15th in the third of 10 qualifying races.

Meanwhile, the men’s 49er pair of KC Ganapathy and Varun Thakkar sit 17th on the overall leaderboard.

The Indian 49er team recorded finishes of 17th, 11th and 16th in the seventh, eighth and ninth qualifying races, respectively.

KC Ganapathy and Varun Thakkar’s final three qualifying races take place on Saturday, July 31.