Tokyo Olympian Vishnu Saravanan obtained India’s first quota in sailing for the Paris Games at the ILCA 7 Men’s World Championship in Australia on Wednesday.
Competing in the one-person dinghy event at the Adelaide Sailing Club, Saravanan managed 125 nett points over six days for 26th place on the overall leaderboard. However, he was fifth among sailors eligible to secure quotas for the Paris 2024 Olympics.
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The ILCA 7 Men’s World Championship served as a qualifying event for Paris 2024 with seven quotas on offer for countries which had not qualified for the Olympics earlier. The other ix quotas on offer at the Adelaide meet went to Guatemala, Montenegro, Chile, Denmark, Turkey and Sweden.
The races in Adelaide were held from January 26 to 31 with a total of 152 ILCA7 class (small single-handed dinghy) sailors participating in Australia. India’s Mohit Saini finished 136th overall with 329 nett points.
Matthew Wearn from Australia, the reigning Olympic champion, won the title with 24.0 nett points. Norway’s Hermann Tomasgaard, the Tokyo Olympics bronze medallist, finished second with 34.0 while Great Britain’s Michael Beckett came third with 41.0. Lower scores are better in sailing.
Saravanan also represented India at Tokyo where he finished 20th in a field of 35. Sailing events at Paris 2024 will be held from July 28 to August 8.
Last year, the 24-year-old Indian won the bronze medal at the Asian Games in Hangzhou in the same sailing category.
The National Olympic Committees (NOCs) have the exclusive authority for the representation of their respective countries at the Olympic Games, athletes’ participation at the Games depends on their NOC selecting them to represent their delegation at Paris 2024.
