Surfers Sekar Patchai and Monica Pugazharasu of Tamil Nadu successfully defended their titles in the technical men’s and women’s category respectively on the opening day of the Stand-Up Paddle (SUP) Challenge 2023. Sekar and Monica’s efforts helped the host state sweep all the four titles available on the day.
Competing at the Pirappanvalasi beach here, Sekar recorded a timing of 13:22.30 minutes in the 2km race while Manikandan M of Tamil Nadu finished second with 13:32.07. Santhosan S of Tamil Nadu, with a timing of 14:07.01, completed a clean sweep in the event for the hosts.
In the women’s event, Monica successfully finished ahead of her competitors with a timing of 22:39.24. Vijayalakshmi Irulappan of Tamil Nadu finished a distant second clocking 27:56.04 mins while Karnataka’s Sinchana D Gowda completed the race in 29:50.90 to secure the third place.
“The water was flat but at the same time conditions were deceptive as there were gusts of wind blowing across. The winds were steady with a slight change in direction making the conditions challenging for sprint and technical races,” said Nawaz Jabbar, race director of the SUP Challenge.
Naveen wins sprint mixed groms category
Local lad Naveen Anandi won the title in Sprint Mixed Groms (U-16) finishing the 200m race with a timing of 1:30.20 minutes overcoming a tough challenge from Karnataka’s Akash Pujar, who finished second clocking 1:30.70. Pravin Boomi, another local lad, finished third in 1:35.73 in the same category.
In technical men (Open) category, a stellar performance by Ajith Govind saw him paddling to the title. He finished the 2km race in 16:52.84 ahead of Selvarasan Nagamuthu (17:07.81) and Sujan Janakiraman (18:42.05) who secured second and third positions, respectively making it a clean sweep for Tamil Nadu in the category.
The championship started with the semi-finals in sprint men (200m) category where two heats were held. In the first heat, Sekar Patchai (1:15.15) finished on top with Dinesh Selvamani (1:15.56) winning the second heat. Akash Shetty (1:21.33) and Manikandan M (1:17.29) finished second in Heat 1 and 2 respectively. Anandan D (1:22.52), Santhosan S (1:24.20), Rohan R Suvarna (1:27.34), Sudhakar Jena(1:30.28), Pavinesh S (1:32.71) and Anoop Kulangara Pradeep (1:44.22) and have also qualified for the finals which will be held on Friday.
The final day of the competition will see some intense action as finals of six categories – Distance Men, Sprint Mixed Defence (Open), Sprint Men (Open), Sprint Women (Open), Sprint Men and Sprint Women will take place. Over 80 stand-up paddlers from across the country are participating in the two-day event which is being hosted under the aegis of Surfing Federation of India – the governing body for the sport of surfing & Stand-Up Paddling in India.