India's Nethra Kumanan secures Paris Olympics quota place, becomes second Indian to obtain quota in sailing

Nethra Kumanan is the first Indian female sailor to qualify for back-to-back Olympics.

India’s Nethra Kumanan has secured a quota spot for 2024 Paris Olympics in sailing at the Last Chance Regatta in Hyeres, France, on Friday (April 26). Nethra obtained the quota under the Emerging Nations Program (ENP) in women’s dinghy (ILCA 6) after finishing fifth on the overall leaderboard with 67 net points.

The ENP quota was created by World Sailing (the world governing body for the sport) to empower athletes from less-known nations to make an impact on the global level. She secured the quota as the top performer among sailors from the ENPA, who were yet to obtain a quota place.

Sailing 🚨🇮🇳's Nethra Kumanan has secured a spot in the 2024 Paris Olympics after she won the Emerging Nation Program (ENP) Quota. She finished 5️⃣th in the last chance regatta in the ILCA 6 category. 🛶It will be her 2️⃣nd consecutive Olympics 👏 pic.twitter.com/1ZM7UhKCdg

— Khel Now (@KhelNow) April 26, 2024

The Last Chance Regatta was the final qualifying event in sailing for Paris Olympics. Romania’s Ebru Bolat (36 net points), Marilena Makri of Cyprus (37 net points) and Slovenia’s Lin Pletikos (54 net points) finished as the top three respectively and also secured the Olympic quotas in same event (women’s dinghy).

However, Belarus’ six-time Olympian Tatiana Drozdovskaya, who was competing as a neutral athlete finished fourth with 59 net points and missed out.

With the quota, Nethra also became the second Indian sailor to secure a berth for the Paris Olympics. Apart from Nethra Kumanan, Vishnu Saravanan has also qualified for the Paris Olympics in sailing.

Vishnu Saravanan secured his place in the men’s dinghy at the ILCA 7 Men’s World Championship 2024, which took place in Australia in January earlier this year.

Nethra Kumanan was also a part of the Indian contingent that represented the nation at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. In addition to that, the Indian sailor has also competed in the Asian Sailing Championships and the Women’s World Championships.

She was also a part of January’s ILCA6 Women’s World Championships; however, she failed to win a quota at the event. Hence, in Hyeres, she had a last chance to secure an Olympic spot, and fortunately, she managed to ace it this time.

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