Vishnu Saravanan clinches India’s first Paris 2024 sailing quota

In the one-person dinghy event at the Adelaide Sailing Club, Saravanan earned 125 nett points over six days, securing the 26th position on the overall leaderboard.

New Delhi: Indian sailor Vishnu Saravanan secured the country’s first Paris 2024 Olympics quota in sailing at the ILCA World Championship 2024 in Adelaide, Australia.

Competing in the one person dinghy event at the Adelaide Sailing Club, Saravanan accumulated 125 nett points over six days and secured the 26th position on the overall leaderboard. Notably, he claimed the fifth spot among eligible sailors to secure quota place for the Paris Olympics.

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“Vishnu Saravanan has secured India’s 1st #ParisOlympics quota in Sailing at the ILCA 7 World Championship, held in Adelaide.

“Clinching one of the 7 Olympic quotas available at the event, #TOPScheme Athlete Vishnu outsailed many Asian sailors to finish 26th overall and secure the Paris berth,” Sports Authority of India shared the post on X.

In the 2023 World Sailing Championships held last year, Saravanan narrowly missed securing a spot for the Paris Olympics. Finishing 23rd in the overall race standings, he fell just seven places short of obtaining one of the 16 Paris quota places available.

The ILCA 7 Men’s World Championship served as a qualifying event for Paris 2024 with seven quotas on offer for countries which had not qualified for the Olympics earlier.

The other six quotas on offer at the Adelaide meet went to Guatemala, Montenegro, Chile, Denmark, Turkey and Sweden.

Last year, the 24-year-old won the bronze medal at the Asian Games in Hangzhou in the same sailing category.

Saravanan, who is a U21 World Championships bronze medallist from 2019, also represented India at Tokyo 2020, where he finished 20th in a field of 35.

In the Tokyo Olympics India had 4 representatives in sailing — Varun Thakkar, Nethra Kumanan, Saravanan K.C. Ganapathy.