Sailor Nethra Kumanan earns Paris Olympics quota

CHENNAI: Indian sailor Nethra Kumanan secured a quota for the Paris Olympics in the women's one-person dinghy ILCA 6 event in the Last Chance Regatta in Hyeres, France, on Friday. By finishing fifth with 67 net points, she qualified via the Emerging Nation Program (ENP) quota. The quota is handed to the sailor who has the best finish outside the top-three among the ENP countries.

A total of 33 sailors competed in the final qualification tournament, which had three Paris berths on offer (excluding the ENP). Outside the top three, Nethra was the best ranked sailor among the ENP countries in the competition.

"We have been waiting for this (qualification) for quite some time. I thought she would qualify at the Asian Games itself, but she somehow missed out on winning a quota and a medal as well. She narrowly missed out on securing a quota in the next few qualification tournaments (ILCA World Championships and Asian Championships). Thankfully, she managed to get through the final qualifying tournament in France," Kumanan, Nethra's father, told TOI.

In the Last Chance Regatta, Nethra did not push hard for the top-three spots knowing that there was an ENP berth up for grabs, but focussed on staying in contention for a quota. She finished inside the top-10 in nine out of 10 races. Although she did not finish in the top-three even once, Nethra made sure that she did enough to qualify for Paris 2024.

"This time, she was trying to play it safe and did not want to lose points at the start. She tried to stay in the top-10 consistently, which helped her in the end. She could have finished higher, but she did not want to take that risk," Kumanan added.

With Vishnu Saravanan having already bagged a quota (in ILCA 7), Nethra is set to become the second sailor from the country to qualify for the Paris Games. She will also become only the third Indian sailor after Farokh Tarapore and Vishnu to make the cut for multiple Olympic Games. Although the sailing quotas are provided to the NOC (National Olympic Committee), it is unlikely that she will miss out on boarding the flight to Paris.