Mangaluru, 27th May 2017: The penultimate day of the second edition of the 'Indian Open of Surfing' witnessed a strong dominance from surfers from Chennai. Amidst near perfect conditions yesterday, the Chennai surfers nearly walked away with semi-final spots in all the categories, except for the women’s open category, that was dominated by the local Mangalore girls.
The second edition of the Indian open of Surfing, hosted at the Sasihithlu beach, Mangalore is a part of the Karnataka Beach Festival – A Karnataka Tourism Initiative. The three-day surfing extravaganza (May 26-28, 2017) is recognised by the Surfing Federation of India and organised by the Mantra Surf Club in association with the Kanara Water Sports Promotion Council.
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The penultimate day of the event consisted of the first and second rounds for the Juniors (17-21 Years), the first round for the Women’s open category, second round for the Seniors (22-30 Years) and Groms – under 16 categories. The semi-final and final rounds for all the categories and the stage two of the men’s SUP race will be held today (28th May 2017).
The day began on a highly energetic mode with the Juniors (17-22 Years). The two rounds of the category witnessed some of the most promising young surfing talents from around India. Six out of 23 junior surfers qualified for the semifinals scheduled for today. Chennai surfers Manivannan T, Surya P, Ajith Govind, Rahul Govind and Sateesh qualified for the semi-finals today along with Ramesh, the lone surfer from Kerala.
The Women’s open category gave a lot of the respite to the locals with three out of the 8 semi-finalists hailing from Mangalore. Local girls Tanvi Jagadish, Aneesha Naik and Sinchana Gowda along with Chennai’s Vilassini Sundar and Shristi Selvam, Pondicherry surfer Suhasini Damian, Manipal surfer Ishita Malviya and Russian surfer Olga Kosenko made it to the semi-finals scheduled for tomorrow.
The men’s senior (22 – 30 Years) category witnessed a complete domination from Tamil Nadu surfers with six out of the eight semi-finalists hailing from the state. The Tamil Nadu surfers who made it to the semi-final round scheduled for today are – Chennai’s Sekar Patchai, Dharani Selvakumar, Manikandan Appu Desappan, Vignesh Vijaya kumar and Mahabalipuram surfers Santosh Moorthy and Raghul Pannerselvam. The others to complete the list were Goan surfer Swapnil Bhinge and Kerala surfer Varghese Antony.
The second round of Groms- under 16 category also witnessed the dominance from Tamil Nadu surfers with all the semi-final spots being taken from the surfers from the state. Chennai surfers Santhosh Santhakumar, Mani Kandan M, Ajeesh Ali and Mani Kandan I along with Mahabalipuram’s Sunil Dhayalan and Sivaraj Babu were the ones who made it to the semi-final round of the Groms – under 16 category.
Sasihithlu beach yesterday witnessed around six thousand visitors, who enjoyed a beautiful weather and a great surfing competition. Union Bank of India, TT Group of Companies and Trip 360 by Cox & Kings powers the second edition of the ‘Indian Open of Surfing’.
