Tamil Nadu sweeps titles at Stand Up Paddle Challenge
M. Manikandan won the Men’s Sprint 200M race, the final event of the competition held at the Pirappanvalasi beach.
Sekar Patchai
RAMESWARAM: 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 Men’s Sprint 200M race, the final event of the competition held at the Pirappanvalasi beach.
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). Dinesh Selvamani (1:14.39) and Santhosan S (1:18.55) 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), 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 minutes.
Muthu Kutti wins Sprint Women
Finishing with a timing of (2:02.52), Muthu Kutti won the 200M sprint women’s open category overcoming Muthumarimmal V who recorded a time of (2:09.71) to finish second while Ramalakshmi R recorded (2:33.46) to finish third in the category.
