Sekar Patchai And Monica Pugazharasu Defend Crowns In National Surfing Event

Tamil Nadu Surfing Association:  Surfers from Tamil Nadu ruled the roost as Sekar Patchai and Monica Pugazharasu successfully defended their titles in the Technical Men’s and Women’s categories respectively on Day 1 of the Palkbay Stand-Up Paddle (SUP) Challenge 2023.

Sekar and Monica’s efforts helped the hosts Tamil Nadu sweep all four titles available on the day.

Competing at the Pirappanvalasi Beach here, Sekar recorded a timing of 13:22.30 mins in the 2km race while Manikandan M. of Tamil Nadu finished second with 13:32.07 mins. Santhosan S. of Tamil Nadu with a timing of 14:07.01 mins to complete a clean sweep in the event for the hosts.

Monica Pugazharasu successfully finished ahead of her competitors with a timing of 22:39.24. Vijayalakshmi Irulappan of Tamil Nadu finished a distant second with a timing of 27:56.04 mins while Karnataka’s Sinchana D Gowda completed the race in 29:50.90 mins to secure third place.

“The water was flat but at the same time conditions were deceptive as there were gusts of wind blowing across. The winds were steady with a slight change in direction making the conditions challenging for sprint and technical races," said Nawaz Jabbar, Race Director of the Palkbay SUP Challenge.

Local lad Naveen Anandi won the title in Sprint Mixed Groms (U-16) finishing the 200M race with a timing of 1:30.20 mins overcoming a tough challenge from Karnataka’s Akash Pujar who finished second with a timing of 1:30.70. Pravin Boomi, another local lad finished third in 1:35.73 mins in the same category.

Ajith Govind wins

The stellar performance by Ajith Govind saw him paddling to the title in the category. He finished the 2 km race in 16:52.84 ahead of Selvarasan Nagamuthu (17:07.81) and Sujan Janakiraman (18:42.05), who secured second and third positions making it a clean sweep for Tamil Nadu in the category.

The championship started with the semifinals in the Sprint Men (200 M) category where two heats were held. In the first heat, Sekar Patchai (1:15.15) finished on top with Dinesh Selvamani (1:15.56) winning the second heat. Akash Shetty (1:21.33) and Manikandan M (1:17.29) finished second in Heat 1 and 2 respectively.

Anandan D (1:22.52), Santhosan S (1:24.20), Rohan R Suvarna (1:27.34), Sudhakar Jena(1:30.28), Pavinesh S (1:32.71) and Anoop Kulangara Pradeep (1:44.22) and have also qualified for the finals which will be held tomorrow.

The Sprint Men’s Open category saw Selvarasan Nagamuthu (1:43.16) and Ajith Govind (1:44.41) top Heat 1 and 2 respectively followed by Arshad Kumar (1:48.75) in Heat 1 and Kuruvilla K Ancheril (1:48.15) in Heat 2.

The final scheduled for Friday will also see V. Sakthi (1:49.31), Arul Ebinesh (1:51.44), Deenadhayalan Gunasekaran (1:51.62), Sujan Janakiraman (1:52.49), John Suganth (2:04.79) and Arul Pristan (1:58.71).

The final day of the competition on Friday will see some intense action as finals of six categories – Distance Men, Sprint Mixed Defence (Open), Sprint Men (Open), Sprint Women (Open), Sprint Men and Sprint Women will take place.

Over 80 stand-up paddlers from across the country are participating in the two-day event which is being hosted under the aegis of the Surfing Federation of India – the governing body for the sport of surfing and stand-up Paddling in India.

The event is also supported by the Tamil Nadu Surfing Association, while QTT Adventure Sports Academy (Quest Academy) is the organising authority of the championship.