Rameswaram, Sep 28 : Sekar Patchai and Tanvi Jagdish of Tamil Nadu were crowned champions in the Men's and Women's Technical categories, respectively, on Day 1 of the Palkbay Stand-Up Paddle (SUP) Challenge 2024, the National SUP Championship organized under the aegis of the Surfing Federation of India. While Karnataka's Akash Pujar walked away with a SUP Technical Mixed Groms title.

Competing at the picturesque Pirappanvalasi Beach in Palk Bay, Sekar successfully defended his title with a timing of 21:08.48 mins in the 4km race. Fellow Tamil Nadu stand-up paddlers Manikandan M and Santhosan secured second and third place with the timings of 22:10.07 mins and 24:44.48 mins, respectively, completing a clean sweep for the hosts.

Tanvi Jagdish crossed the finish line with a timing of 28:16.29 minutes to snatch the title from the former champion, Monika P. of Tamil Nadu, who completed the race at 30:32.63 minutes. Vijayalakshmi Irulappan, also from Tamil Nadu, completed the podium with a time of 31:19.29 minutes, securing third place.

In the latest addition to the Palkbay National Championship 2024, Akash Pujar emerged as the champion with a timing of 11:06.15 mins in the SUP Technical Mixed Groms category. Close behind were Tamil Nadu's Muthukumar N, who finished second with a timing of 11:25.88 mins, and Karnataka's Praveen Pujar, who claimed third place with a timing of 11:29.81 mins.

Hailing from Pirappanvalasai village, local lad Muthukumar has been honing his skills under the guidance of Jehan Driver, an International Surfing Association SUP coach. His silver medal win in the technical mixed groms category has brought immense pride to his village.

The championship started with the semifinals in the SUP Sprint Men (200 M) category where two heats were held. In the first heat, Sekar Patchai (1:08.37) finished on top with M. Manikandan (1:13.78) winning Heat 2.

Akash Shetty (1:14.17), Santhosan S (1:17.75) and Akash Pujar (1:19.37) finished second, third and fourth respectively in Heat 1. M. Manjunath Naik (1:21.88), Selvarasan Nagamuthu (1:30.34), Rohan R. Suvarna (1:36.63), Darvin Ajay (1:40.01) and Rebiston Edward (2:02.48) were amongst the other Stand-up paddlers to qualify for the finals.

The Sprint Men Open category semifinal saw Datchna Moorthy (1:43.16) and Muthu Rajeswaran (1:33.94) top Heat 1 and 2 respectively followed by Kannan N (1:35.02) in Heat 1 and Vembarasan N (1:37.03) in Heat 2.

The final of the category scheduled for Sunday will also see Gokul Raj R. (1:37.81), Kuruvilla K. Ancheril (1:42.05), Prabhunathan R. (1:51:47), Steeve S. Paul (1:55.54), Jyothis Joseph (1:59.30) and Hrithik Raj (2:03.69).

The championship later moved on to the Women's sprint category semifinals where Anandi Aarthi (1:28.96) finished the race on top followed by Tanvi Jagdish (1:29.99) and Vijayalakshmi Irulappan (1:30.99) who finished second and third in Heat 1.

Other Women Stand-up paddlers to qualify for the final scheduled for Sunday are Monika P. (1:36.01), Shrishti Selvam (1:36.17), Muthu Kutti (1:45.39), Muthumarimmal V. (2:03.61) and Anush Reddy (3:25.93).

The other semifinal of the day saw Sunil Kulhari (1:40.47), Rajeshwaran (1:41.46) in Heat 1 and Gopinath Panchavaranam (1:50.22) of Heat 2 completing the race with first, second and third positions respectively. Others to qualify for the final scheduled for Sunday are Ashish Dadhwal (1:57.71), Avkash Rawat (2:02.48) and Devansh Goel (2:11'85).

In the semifinals of the sprint mixed groms category, Akash Pujar (1:13.13) and Muthukumar N. (1:17.76) of Heat 2 stood first and second while Praveen Pujar (1:18.79) of Heat 1 finished third. Sabarish T. (1:24.45), Anandi Arthi (1:31.06), Poornish T. (1:36.51), Bala Rajeshwaran (1:36.69) and Karmegam Kantheshwaran (2:05.58) also qualified for the final, lined-up for on Sunday.

The second and final day of the competition on Sunday will see some intense action as finals of eight categories ' SUP Distance Men, SUP Distance Women, SUP Technical Men (Open), SUP Sprint Mixed Defence (Open), SUP Sprint Men (Open), SUP Sprint Mixed Groms, SUP Sprint Men and SUP Sprint Women will take place.

A record 120-plus stand-up paddlers from across the country are participating in the two-day event which is being hosted under the aegis of the Surfing Federation of India ' the governing body for the sport of surfing & Stand-Up Paddling in India.

/IANS