India’s top sailor Vishnu Sarvanan gave an excellent demonstration of being in the present, ignoring his fingers being left in bad shape because of the work done on the ropes in the Adelaide coast’s windy conditions and backing himself, when he qualified for his second successive Olympic Games laser sailing competition.
While he is relieved that he has qualified for his second successive Olympic Games – and delighted that he did at the ILCA 7 World Championships 2024 – he says he will perhaps appreciate his career only after winning an Olympic medal for India. “To me it does not matter how many Olympics I have qualified for, an Olympic medal in the future is the real target,” he said.
Finishing 26th in the World Championships that concluded on Wednesday, he was fifth among seven sailors from nations that had not already secured a place in the Olympic ILCA 7 regatta. He is relieved that he did not leave it to the Last Chance Regatta 2024 and can now begin preparing for the Olympic Games.
The others Laser sailors who earned Paris 2024 tickets in Adelaide are from Guatemala (Juan Maegli), Montenegro (Milivoj Dukic), Chile (Clemente Seguel Lacamara), Denmark (Johan Lungdgaard Schubert), Turkey (Yigit Talcin Citak) and Sweden (Emil Bengston).
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Vishnu Saravanan’s reactions after securing ticket to second successive Olympic Games.#Olympics @vishnu217119 @g_rajaraman @BoriaMajumdar pic.twitter.com/CMC0StrQJk
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Though the sailing quotas are for the NOC (National Olympic Committee), it is unlikely that either the Indian Olympic Association or the Yachting Association of India will pitchfork any other sailor to the Olympic Games. Vishnu Saravanan, ranked World No. 32 as of December 12, 2023, will become only the second Indian after Farokh Tararpore to sail in multiple Olympic Games.
With what seemed an unsettled preparation for Paris 2024, he missed the bus on three occasions in 2023. The first opportunity was the 2023 Sailing World Championships in The Hague, Netherlands. He finished 37th among 138 starters but with only 16 berths available for Paris 2024, he had to satisfy himself with sailing in the Gold Fleet.
His next shot came at the Asian Games in Hangzhou where he had to win gold to attain qualification. Though he won three of the 11 races, he had to settle for the bronze medal with Singapore’s Lo Jun Han Ryan claiming the Olympic Games ticket. His gold medal aspirations took a beating after he was disqualified at the start of the eighth race.
It left Vishnu Saravanan needing to be one of the two who would ensure qualification for Paris at the Asian Championships in Pattaya in December last year. Despite seven top-10 finishes in nine races before the medal race, he ended up without a podium place. That was because he finished a poor 16th in the other races.
His challenge, therefore, was to nail the Olympic qualification the ILCA 7 World Championships in Adelaide. He had to shut down any possible negative thoughts from the Asian Games or the Asian Sailing Championships and focus on the present, bringing his skills to the fore in what promised to be extremely windy conditions.
Vishnu’s trust in his routine was not shaken and it helped him immensely. “We (athletes) have to believe in ourselves. I definitely like the pressure, but I never doubted my ability to get a spot in the Olympic Games. The things that pushed me down gave me more focus and fuelled me to perform better in the World Championships,” said Vishnu.
Vishnu Saravanan’s immediate priority was to qualify to be in the Gold Fleet in the four final races. A conservative opening day saw him finish 15th and 19th in the two races that he sailed as part of the Blue Fleet. But with more aggression and strong tactics, he made the most of his boat speeds to notch up two top 10 finishes each in the Yellow and Red Fleets respectively.
Having ensured a place in the top 50, he had to hold his own when the competition got tougher. Riding on a great start in the first of the four final races, he finished sixth to inch closer to the Olympic spot. He could discard the 49th place finish in the second final race and though he was 28th and 33rd in the last two races, he had done enough to confirm Paris 2024 qualification.
Back in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, he finished 20th among 35 starters. The highlight of his campaign was a third place in the ninth race of the 10-race regatta ahead of the medal race for which only the top 10 were eligible. Coupled with three other top 15 finishes, it gave him belief that he could compete shoulders with the world’s best.
The best sailing teams will be training in the Marseille Marina, venue of the Paris Olympic Games Sailing competition, but that would cost him quite a bomb. So, he plans to continue to train in Malta and prepare for the big event. “The conditions are similar to Marseille,” he said, pointing out that he could draw from training in the same windy Mediterranean Sea.
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