JOIN USIndian Open of Surfing: Chennai surfers dominate Day 2
The second day of the ‘Indian Open of Surfing 2017’ witnessed a dominance of surfers from Chennai.
In the near-perfect conditions on Saturday, the Chennai surfers nearly walked away with the semi-final spots in all the categories, except for the Women’s Open category, which was dominated by the Mangaluru girls.
The penultimate day of the event consisted of the first and second rounds for the Juniors (17-21 Years), the first round for the Women’s Open category, second round for the Senior (22-30 Years) and Groms Under-16 categories. The semi-final and final rounds for all the categories and the Stage 2 of the men’s SUP race will be held on Sunday.
The day began in a highly energetic mode with the Juniors (17-22 years). The 2 rounds of the category witnessed some of the most promising young surfers from around India in action. Six out of the 23 junior surfers qualified for the semi-finals scheduled for Sunday. Chennai surfers Manivannan T, Surya P, Ajith Govind, Rahul Govind and Sateesh qualified for the semi-finals on Sunday along with Ramesh, the lone surfer from Kerala.
The Women’s Open category gave a lot of the respite to the locals with 3 of the 8 semi-finalists hailing from Mangaluru. Local surfers Tanvi Jagadish, Aneesha Naik and Sinchana Gowda, along with Chennai’s Vilassini Sundar and Shristi Selvam, Pondicherry surfer Suhasini Damian, Manipal surfer Ishita Malviya and Russian surfer Olga Kosenko made it to the semi-finals scheduled for Sunday.
The men’s senior (22 – 30 years) category witnessed a complete dominance of Tamil Nadu surfers with 6 out of the 8 semi-finalists hailing from the state. The Tamil Nadu surfers who made it to the semi-final round scheduled for Sunday are Chennai’s Sekar Patchai, Dharani Selvakumar, Manikandan Appu Desappan, Vignesh Vijaya Kumar and Mahabalipuram surfers Santosh Moorthy and Raghul Pannerselvam. The others to complete the list were Goan surfer Swapnil Bhinge and Kerala surfer Varghese Antony.
The second round of Groms Under-16 category also witnessed the dominance of Tamil Nadu surfers with all the semi-final spots being taken by the surfers from the state. Chennai surfers Santhosh Santhakumar, Mani Kandan M, Ajeesh Ali and Mani Kandan I along with Mahabalipuram’s Sunil Dhayalan and Sivaraj Babu were the ones who made it to the semi-final round of the Groms Under-16 category.
The second edition of the Open, hosted at the Sasihithlu beach, is a part of the Karnataka Beach Festival – A Karnataka Tourism Initiative. The three-day surfing extravaganza is recognised by the Surfing Federation of India and organised by the Mantra Surf Club in association with the Kanara Water Sports Promotion Council.
Sasihithlu beach on Saturday witnessed more than 5,000 visitors, who enjoyed a beautiful weather and a great surfing competition.