Tamil Nadu lads walk away with top honours

Mangaluru: Tamil Nadu’s teenage surfing sensations, Kishore Kumar and Kamali Moorthy swept through the top honours in both the men’s and women’s categories -Groms and Open to be crowned as the Men’s and Women’s champions respectively in the 4th edition of Indian Open of Surfing. The curtains came down on the three-day championship tournament at Sasihitlu beachfront in this coastal city on Saturday. It was hosted by Mantra Surf Club.

After winning titles in their categories (Boy and Girl Groms), they also punched their weight above everyone with their scintillating performances to win the Open Men and Women categories to be crowned as the champions. The three-day premier surfing competition of India which was hosted by Mantra Surf Club at Sashithlu Beach, Mangalore, Karnataka is the official national championship of the Surfing Federation of India and is also recognized by the International Surfing Association. The event has got major support from Karnataka Tourism for the fourth time in a row while Cycle Pure Agarbathies and Jai Hind Group for the first time have joined the competition as Principal Partners.

Kishore walked away with a cash prize of 50,000 INR, followed by Srikanth D, 30,000 INR and Surya P, 20,000 INR in Men’s Open category. Kamali was handed over the cheque of 30,000 INR for securing first position in the Women’s Open category followed by Sugar 20,000 INR and Sinchana, 10,000 INR for second and third position respectively. In Groms boys 16 & under category, Kishore (20,000 INR); Tayin Arun (15,000 INR) and Harish P (10, 000 INR) got the cash prizes for 1st, 2nd and 3rd positions respectively. Grom’s girls 16 & under category saw Kamali, Thanishka and Saanvi winning cash prizes of 20,000; 15,000 & 10,000 respectively.

The day began with the semifinals of the men’s open surf category which saw Tamil Nadu’s teenager Kishore Kumar manoeuvring majestically on waters, thereby advancing to the finals with the highest score of 14.00 in the category and was joined by the home state surfers, Srikanth D (11.66), Surya P (11.0) and SathishSaravanan (7.93).

From there, Kishore never looked back as the finals of the men’s open surf category were a treat to watch where the young land Kishore competed against more experienced surfers and emerged as a champion with 15.67 scores in the finals while runner-up Srikanth D earned 12.90 followed by Surya P (9.14).In the Surfing Groms 16 and Under Boys category with 15.07 points, Kishore Kumar was successfully able to retain the title from the last edition. Tamil Nadu’s Tayin Arun and Harish P finished as the runner’s up the third position with a total of 8.97 and 6.27 points

respectively. (eom)