Gamagori, October 2, 2026 (Yes Punjab News)
Indian sailor Nethra Kumanan ended a 12-year wait for an Asian Games podium finish by winning the bronze medal in the women’s dinghy at the Aichi-Nagoya Games on Friday.
Nethra finished with 14 net points after the two-race final series at the Kaiyoh Yacht Harbor. Thailand’s Sophia Montgomery won the gold with five points, while Singapore’s Jania Ang claimed silver with 13.
It is India’s third sailing medal at the 2026 Asian Games, following the men’s skiff silver won by Manu Francis and Prince Kurisinkal Noble and the women’s skiff bronze claimed by Harshita Tomar and Shital Verma.
Nethra entered the finals with seven recalculated points from the qualification series. She finished sixth in Final 1, adding six points, before winning Final 2 and adding just one point to her tally.
She finished level on 14 net points with Hong Kong’s Stephanie Norton but secured the bronze on the tie-break, having the better head-to-head record across the series.
The medal adds to Nethra’s record as a trailblazer in Indian sailing. She became the first Indian woman sailor to qualify for the Olympics when she secured her Tokyo 2020 berth through the Mussanah Open Championship in Oman. She also qualified for the Paris 2024 Olympics.
Two-time Olympian Vishnu Saravanan finished fourth in the men’s dinghy with 21 net points. Republic of Korea’s Ha Jee-min won gold with nine points, while Malaysia’s Khairulnizam Mohd Afendy took bronze with 14. Saravanan had won bronze at the Hangzhou Asian Games.
India’s canoe slalom campaign, meanwhile, concluded without a medal. Five Indian paddlers competed across five medal events — men’s kayak singles, men’s kayak cross, women’s canoe singles, women’s kayak singles and women’s kayak cross.
India’s best result came in the men’s kayak singles, where Pradhyumna Singh Rathod finished sixth among 10 finalists with a score of 125.21, including a six-second time penalty.
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