Top surfers will vie for honours

Mangaluru

: Over 70 top surfers from across the country, have confirmed their participation in the third edition of the Indian Open of Surfing-2022. The three-day competition will be hosted by the Mantra Surf Club at the Panambur Beach, from Friday to May 29. The event is organised by the Surfing Federation of India (SFI) – the governing body for surfing and standup paddleboarding in India. The premier surfing competition in India is recognized by the International Surfing Association – the global governing body for the sport.Defending champions D Manikandan and Shrishti Selvam will be seen in action, to defend their titles over the weekend. Arun Vasu, president of SFI, said, “This edition of Indian Open will be more focused on having a structured contest, based on the performances of the previous events. It is encouraging to see how the participation has spread across various places, and not concentrated to one place.”Surfers will compete in two disciplines, surfing and standup paddleboarding, across categories comprising, male open, female open, male and female groms (under-16) and male 17+ surf. Karnataka Tourism has come on board with the Indian Open of Surfing as the title partner, while Chennai-based TT Group are the associate partner. Action camera majors GoPro, are the action partners for the premier surfing competition.“I don’t feel the pressure of defending the national title. I will be doing my best, and concentrating on my performance for the surf contest,” said D Manikandan, defending national champion. The defending national women’s champion, Shrishti Selvam, said, “It is going to be a tough and challenging field of surfers this year, and I am happy that more women are participating in the sport. It will be a fun contest, and I will be doing my best to defend the title.”Shanti Banarse of Goa and Sinchana Gowda of Karnataka, will be the other top surfers competing for the title, in the women’s category, while Nithishvarun T and Babu Sivaraj of Tamil Nadu are expected to give a tough competition to D Manikandan, for the men’s title. Kishore Kumar and

Tayin Arun

of Tamil Nadu are the favourites in the groms (under-16) category.