23-year-old Nethra Kumanan becomes the first Indian women sailors to make it to the Olympics as she finish on the top of laser radial event at 2021 Mussanah Open Championships in Oman which is an Asian Qualifier.

Previously in 2008 Summer Olympics Nachhatar Singh Johal represented India in Mixed Finn event. Before that Malav Shroff & Sumeet Patel in 2004 (in 49er Class), F. Tarapore ( in 470 Class) in 1992 with Cyrus Cama, in 1988 with Kelly Rao and in 1984 with Dhruv Bhandari had represented India in sailing. In 1972 Soli Contractor and A.A. Basith had represented India in Flying Dutchman Class, event which is no longer a Olympic event.

This will be first time Any female Sailing Player will represent India in Olympics all thanks to hardwork put by Chennai based Sailing queen. In Asian Qualifier,  it was not a good start for Nethra as she finishes 4th after day 1. But with olympics quota in her mind she make a comeback on day 2 and finished races on podium. Day 3 turn out most succesful for her as she finishes on the top in both races and maintained decent lead.

On Day 4 despite 3rd and 5th place finish she continue lead by 17 points. Today on Wednesday, thanks to her first and second place finish she has manage to get 21 points unbeatable lead over Other Indian Ramya and Confirm Historical Quota for India.

Tomorrow is final day and medal races will be there, in final medal race Double point will be considered but thanks to her 21 points lead she will finish race on the top she just need to participate in race.

In January last year, Kumanan became the first Indian woman to win a medal at the Sailing World Cup Series held in USA Miami. An engineering student at the SRM College in Chennai, Nethra Kumanan had represented India at both the 2014 and 2018 Asian Games, finishing fourth in the latter event.

Also Read

Nethra earn 60th Quota for India across 10 sports . So far 85 Indian have qualified for Olympics across 43 event among them 47 are men while 38 are women.