Sekar Patchai, Monica Pugazharasu defend crown, power Tamil Nadu to clean sweep of titles

Rameswaram (Tamil Nadu) [India], September 15 : Sekar Patchai and Monica Pugazharasu of Tamil successfully defended their titles in the Technical Men’s and Women’s categories respectively on Day 1 of the Stand-Up Paddle (SUP) Challenge 2023. Sekar and Monica’s efforts helped the host state sweep all the 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.
Naveen wins Sprint Mixed Groms category 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 Technical Men (Open) category
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.
Sprint Men
The championship started with the semi-finals in 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.
Sprint Men (Open)
The Sprint Men’s Open category saw Selvarasan Nagamuthu (1:43.16) and Ajith Govind (1:44.41) topped 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 tomorrow 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 tomorrow 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 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 organizing authority of the championship.
The National Championship is live on liveheats where athletes from all over the world will be able to follow the progression of their favorite athletes through their races.