KOVALAM, August 5: The top surfers in the competition qualified for the Semifinals after two rounds of challenging surfs in the Covelong Classic held here as part of the 8th Covelong Surf,Music & Fitness Festival. This competition will determine the National Champions of Surfing which is conducted under the aegis of Surfing Federation of India. Chennai based TT Group is the principal presenter for this event and the principal sponsors are Tamil Nadu Sports Ministry, Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu and Jawa Yezdi Motorcycles. The first day of the much awaited Covelong Festival was inaugurated by IAS, Apoorva Selvi, Principal Secretary, Youth Welfare & Sports Development, Tamil Nadu Government by felicitating the winners of yesterday’s Stand-Up Paddle Championship winners.
In the Women’s Open Category Shrishti Selvam, Sugar Banarse, Ananya Samhita, Sophia Sharma, Kamali P, and Marielle Wunderink have qualified for the semifinals which is scheduled for 7th Aug, 2022. Shrishti Selvam , Sugar Banarse & Kamali P topped their respective heats to qualify for the semifinals.
12 Heats of intense surfing was seen in Round 1 of the Men’s Open Category. The top two surfers from each heat will join the top 16 from the Mahabs Point Break Challenge which was held earlier this week for Round 2 where they will compete in 10 heats for a place in Round 3. The competition promises to be exciting and will test the endurance of the surfers as they will have to compete in multiple rounds before reaching the Semi Finals. Round 2 and Round 3 are scheduled to happen tomorrow.
Men’s International Open saw surfers from Sri Lanka and Maldives competing along with the top Indian surfers. Round 1 were held in 5 heats in which the top 2 surfers from each heat qualified directly for Round 3 while the 3rd and 4th placed surfer will have a second chance to compete again in Round 2. Lakshitha Madushan Dalugoda Arachchige (Sri Lanka), Sathish Saravanan (India), Lesitha Prabath Koku Hannadige (Sri Lanka), Kanapathy Ramesh Jay Hallar (Sri Lanka) and Praneeth Sadaruwan Pincha Baduge (Sri Lanka) topped their respective heats.
In the Groms (16 & Under) Boys category favourite, Kishore Kumar topped the quarterfinals with the highest score (9.0). Naveenkumar R qualified on top from the second quarterfinals with a score of 12.0. They will be joined by Tayin Arun (10.34), Thendral R (10.10), Lokesh S (7.50), Kalapathy S (6.53), Kiranjith Kumar (6.16) and Jeevanathan I (5,47) in the semifinals.
To promote the sport of surfing in kids, the eight edition of Covelong Surf introduced Novice (12 & Under) category to promote Surfing for kids. A total of 8 surfers competed in the said category, out of which, Prahlad Sriram (14.40), Thanishka Mendon (9.53), Yudhveer Mahajan (9.33) and Harish P (8.83) have qualified for the finals which is lined up for Sunday.
The Music and Fitness festival which is part of the Covelong Classic Surf will start from tomorrow providing a perfect balance of intense competition and festivity.
