Paris Olympics 2024: India’s Nethra Kumanan secures quota
Nethra is the second Indian after Vishnu Saravanan to qualify for the Paris Olympics 2024
Indian sailor Nethra Kumanan in Paris Olympics Games 2024; PC:Olympics.com
Indian sailor Nethra Kumanan became the second Indian sailor to clinch a Paris Olympics 2024 quota in sailing. The Chennai-based sailor won the Olympic quota under the Emerging Nations Program at the Last Chance Regatta in Hyeres, France, on Friday.
Nethra is the second Indian, after Vishnu Saravanan, to qualify for the Paris Olympics 2024. While Vishnu will be in action in the men’s dinghy (ILCA 7), Nethra will compete in the women’s dinghy (ILCA 6) event. Both sailors participated in the Tokyo Olympics three years ago.
Incidentally, Nethra is the first Indian woman sailor to compete in multiple Olympic Games.
The top three sailors secured an Olympic quota in the Last Chance Regatta, which is an Olympic qualifier. Romania’s Ebru Bolat (36 net points), Marilena Makri of Cyprus (37 net points), and Slovenia’s Lin Pletikos (54 net points) qualified automatically for the Paris Olympics 2024. Although Nethra scored 67 net points to finish fifth on the overall leaderboard, the Indian secured an Olympic quota as the top performer among sailors from the Emerging Nations Program (ENP) who had not yet obtained a quota.
World Sailing, the world governing body for the sport, aims to help athletes from less well-known sailing nations make an impact at the top level through its ENP programme.
Belarusian sailor and six-time Olympian Tatiana Drozdovskaya finished ahead of Nethra with 59 net points, but as she was competing as an individual neutral athlete, she missed out on a spot at the Paris Olympics.
The Paris Olympics will be Nethra’s second appearance at the quadrennial Games. The sailor from Chennai races in the Laser Radial category, a small, dinghy-style boat that is sailed single-handedly.
She also competed at the Asian Games in 2014, 2018 and 2023, the Asian Sailing Championships and the ILCA6 Women’s World Championships in 2024, but did not obtain an Olympic quota from those events. Her best finish at the Asian Games is a fourth place finish in the 2018 edition in Jakarta, Indonesia.
