Surfing: Sekar Patchai, Monica Pugazharasu Win Double To Help T.N. Clean Sweep Titles

Indian Coast Guard Services:  Sekar Patchai and Monica Pugazharasu completed their double in the men’s and women’s categories respectively, making sure Tamil Nadu made a clean sweep of all the titles in the Stand-Up Paddle (SUP) Challenge 2023, on Friday.

M. Manikandan won the Sprint Men 200M race, the final event of the competition held at the Pirappanvalasi Beach here.

Sekar added the Distance title along with the technical race title which he had won on Thursday. Monica ousted defending champion Gayatri Juvekar of Maharashtra in the sprint race to complete her double.

“The feeling of winning both the titles is very hard to describe. I believe that this is the result of my hard work as the competition was very high and I am very happy that more female participants are taking up stand-up paddling which will only improve the level of competition”, said Monica Pugazharasu after winning both titles in the women’s category.

Manikandan wins Sprint Men’s category

Manikandan of Tamil Nadu comfortably won the men’s 200M sprint category finishing ahead of his competition with a timing of 1:08.99 mins. Dinesh Selvamani (1:14.39 mins) and Santhosan S (1:18.55 mins) finished second and third. Manikandan also denied defending champion Sekar Patchai his third title in the championship as Sekar could only finish 9th.

“There was no pressure for me to defend all three titles this year as I was only focusing on my individual performance. I would like to take this form and perform well in international competitions for the country”, said Sekar Patchai, winner of double titles in the men’s category.

Monica dethrones Gayatri

Monica Pughazarasu of Tamil Nadu won the 200M sprint in the women's category, defeating defending champion Maharashtra's Gayatri Juvekar with a timing of 1:27.92 mins, while Gayatri finished with a timing of 1:30.31. Karnataka’s Sinchana D Gowda finished third with a timing of 1:35.76.

Sekar wins the Distance Men's category

Continuing his winning momentum from Day 1, Sekar emerged victorious in the first final of the day in the Distance Men (12 km) category, his second of the championship. He finished the gruelling race with a timing of 83:0.45 minutes. Manikandan M was also spectacular on the water as he secured the second position with a timing of 83:33.30 minutes while Dinesh Selvamani with a timing of 87:13.93 minutes finished third.

Muthu Kutti wins Sprint Women

Finishing with a timing of 2:02.52 mins, Muthu Kutti won the 200 M sprint women’s open category overcoming Muthumarimmal V who recorded 2:09.71 mins to come second while Ramalakshmi R (2:33.46 mins) finished third in the category.

Ajith Govind continued his impressive run securing his second title in the Men’s Open category with his victory in the 200 M Sprint race. He completed the sprint race in 1:26.76 mins while his competitors, Selvarasan Nagamuthu took 1:32.13 mins and V Sakthi took 1:32.83 minutes to finish second and third respectively.

Raja Pandian wins Sprint Mixed Defence

In the category of defence personnel added for the first time in the Palkbay SUP Challenge, Raja Pandian of Marine Elite force, Tamil Nadu Forest(1:35.43 mins) ousted Aaqil Pathan of Indian Coast Guard Services (1:36.83) in a tight race to come away with the title. Navanithan S of Narine Elite force, Tamil Nadu Forest finished third behind the duo with a timing of 1:37.58 mins.

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