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In an overall lukewarm showing by Team India, sailors Prince Noble and Manu Francis pulled through on the last day to give the country its sole medal at the at the Asian Sailing Championships 2023.
Participating in the men's skiff 49er, the two finished with a bronze at the Royal Varuna Yacht Club in Pattaya, Thailand, after days of intense competition. Meanwhile, Zaiding Wen/Tian Liu finished with gold, and Mingliang Ding/Wenwei Zhang claimed silver.
For Noble and Francis, this marks a repeat performance of their feat from the 2022 Abu Dhabi Asian Sailing Championships, where they had won bronze as well.
Despite their podium finish, the duo haven't managed to claim an Olympic quota yet, and will have their target locked in the coming months.
India at the Asian Sailing Championships
The Asian Sailing Championships featured a total of six races, namely the women’s one person dinghy (ILCA6), men’s one person dinghy (ILCA7), mixed dinghy (470), men's skiff (49er), women's skiff (49erFX), and mixed multihull (Narca17). Team India had a total of 15 sailors participating in the event, with the likes of Olympians Nethra Kumanan and Vishnu Saravanan repping the nation.
Saravanan came close to a medal finish, but ended up fourth in the men's one person dinghy. Meanwhile, Nethra Kumanan tried her best but had to make peace with a seventh place finish in the women's one person dinghy. In the mixed dinghy, Shraddha Verma and Ravindra Sharma ended up ninth.
India's two duos in the men's 49er class, K C Ganapathy/Varun Ashok and Aanand Thakur/Satyam Rangad, concluded the competition on 8th and 14th places respectively.
Mohit Saini finished 12th in the men's one person dinghy, and Deepak Saini was 19th in the same event. Aman Mohan Vyas and Aastha finished last in the twelve team race of the mixed multihull event.
