Chennai’s Nethra Kumanan, on Wednesday, became the first Indian woman sailor to qualify for the Olympics.
The confirmation comes after she assured of a top-place finish in the ongoing Mussanah Open Championships, the Asia Qualifiers, in Oman.
Nethra has 21-point lead over her nearest sailor Ramya Saravanan at the moment with a day more to go. The final day race is only a 20-pointer race.
“Yes, Kumanan has qualified for the Tokyo Olympics with one race to go on the final day on Thursday,” Asian Sailing Federation President Malav Shroff told PTI.
Shroff has represented India in 2004 Athens games.
Overall, Nethra is the 10th Indian sailor to qualify for Olympics but according to Shroff, she is the first Indian to qualify directly while other nine members qualified by getting quotas that could not be filled up.
Other nine athletes- Nachhatar Singh Johal (2008), Shroff and Sumeet Patel (2004), F Tarapore and Cyrus Cama (1992), Kelly Rao (1988), Dhruv Bhandari (1984), Soli Contractor and A A Basith (1972).
