Oman, April 4 (SocialNews.XYZ) It was smooth sailing for the Indians on the opening day of the Mussanah Open Championship 2021 at the Millennium Resort in Mussanah, Oman with many sailors placed between second and fourth positions in the last qualification round for this year's Tokyo Olympics from Asia and Africa.
In the Laser Radial category, in which two Olympic quota places are up for grabs, Harshita Tomar was placed in second place with six points behind South Korea's Jung Hyewon who is just a point ahead.
The top-ranked Indian in the fray, Nethra Kumanan, is placed fourth, despite getting a great start in Race 1 where she finished second behind Jung. But in the second race, Nethra, who became India's first World Cup medallist in 2019, finished seventh. She can still make up for the disappointing second race as there are eight more races to go followed by the medal race.
In the 49er category, the team of Ganapathy Kelapanda Chengappa and Varun Ashok Thakkar was placed fourth behind two Chinese and a South African team with 18 points after the first three races, while China are sitting comfortably on seven 7 points. Only one team can earn a Olympic quota in the category.
The Mussanah Open provides two Asian spots each in the Laser Radial and Laser Standard classes, while all other classes have one Asian spot for Tokyo.
In the 49er FX Class, the Indian pair of Ekta Yadav and Ritika Dangi finished the opening day placed third. The duo had an excellent third race where they finish on top but because of their unimpressive showing in the Race 1 and 2 they are currently third with eight points. China are leading the event followed closely by Thailand.
A total of 19 Indians are talking part in six qualifying events.
Indians' standings after Day 1
Laser Radial class: 2. Harshita Tomar (6 points); 4. Nethra Kumanan (9 points); 7. Ramya Saravanan (16 points); 12. Jayalakshmi Sundaravadivel (21 points).
Laser Standard class: 4. Upamanyu Dutta (11 points); 7. Vishnu Saravanan (14 points); 12. Mohit Saini (23 points); 15. Ram Milan Yadav (29 points); 16. Gitesh (32 points).
49erFX class: 3. Ekta Yadav and Ritika Dangi (8 points).
49er class: 4. Ganapathy Chengappa and Varun Thakkar (18 points); 11. Prince Noble and Manu Francis (26 points); 12. Sandip Jain and Munna Pandit (29 points).
RS:X Women class: 3. Ishwariya Ganesh (5 points)
RS:X Men class: 5. Ebad Ali (10 points); 11. Jerome Savarimuthu (20 points).
Source: IANS
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