National Surfing: Chennai boy Kishore Kumar shines on Day 1

MAHABALIPURAM: Chennai boy, Kishore Kumar outshone every competitor in the opening day of the Mahabs Point Break Challenge in the national surfing championships with a highest score of 17.33 points in Round 1, here on Monday.

"It's been a rewarding day definitely, but we still have a long way to go. I am happy that I could perform as per my plans but tomorrow will be a tough day. I am looking forward to the semi-finals and finals tomorrow," said Kishore Kumar after his scintillating performance.

The Mahabs Point Break Challenge is one of the two back-to-back national surfing championships announced by the Surfing Federation of India.

The two-day national surfing championship kicked off to a very competitive field with over 80 surfers competing for a place in the semifinals & finals on Tuesday.

The day started with the quarterfinal heats of the Groms 16 and Under Boys category where Indian Open of Surfing (Groms Boys 16 & under) winner Kishore Kumar stood apart with his brave and confident performance that saw him get 16.83 points, the highest in the category.

The other Groms to make it to the semifinals scheduled for Tuesday are Tayin Arun (8.70), Kalapathy S (11.50), Jeevanathan I (7), Naveen Kumar R (11.66), Kiranjith Kumar S (10.50), Lokesh S (5.84) & Jeevan S (10.50).

In the Surfing Men's Open (17+) category Kishore Kumar again outshined everyone else in his category with a spectacular performance of 17.33 points in Round 1, again the highest score for the day. Kishore continued with his momentum in the second round as well with 13 points, outshining seasoned senior surfers while securing the best score in the round for the category again.

The others who stood out in the Men's Open (17+) category of Round 2 were Harish M (12.83), Ramesh Budhiyal (12.77), Ajeesh Ali (12.67), Sivaraj Babu (12.50), Sanjaikumar S (12.16), Srikanth D (12), Ajith Govind (11.66) & Nithish Varun T and Rahul G both earning 11.17 points each. Round 3 of the Surfing Men's Open (17+) category will be played tomorrow that will be followed by the quarterfinals, semifinals and finals respectively.

The final day of the Mahabs Point Break Challenge will see the Semifinals and finals of the Groms 16 and Under Boys along with the semi-finals and finals for Surfing Groms 16 & Under Girls & Surfing Women's Open respectively. The finals for the Surfing Men's open category will also take place on Tuesday.