The first edition of the All Cargo Indian Open of got underway with much fanfare at the Sasihthlu beach in Mangaluru yesterday.
The three-day tournament is a part of the Karnataka Surfing Festival promoted by Karnataka tourism. The championship began with the preliminary rounds of Juniors (17-22 Years) and Masters (28 and above) category. Surfers in both the categories showcased their skills to fix their slot for the semi-finals scheduled for tomorrow.
The rest of the categories will see surfers battling it hard to fix their semi-final slot tomorrow.
Both young and Master surfers were given 20 minutes of time to showcase their skills in testing conditions in the sea.
Winners were adjudged on the basis of manoeuvres performed by each surfer in the water and their ability to catch the wave. The Masters category had two rounds.
Round one consisted of three heats with participation from 11 surfers. The winner of the first round directly secures a semi-final spot, while the second, third and fourth position surfers advance to the second round. In the second round the first second and third position holders advance to semi-finals while the fourth and fifth position holders are eliminated.
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Moorthy Megavan (1st), Edy Rodrigues (2nd), Partha Varanasi (3rd) by the virtue of their positions in the second round advanced to the semi-finals while Vellu secured a direct semi-final spot by the virtue of finishing first in the Round 1.
Over 26 surfers participated in the Juniors (17-22 Years) category, which consisted of six heats in the first round and four heats in the second round. Ajith Kumar, Ragul Govind, Sathish S, Venkta Gouda, Surya P and Ramesh Visvanan secured their semi-final spots for the category.
Earlier in the day the 'All Cargo Indian Open of Surfing' was inaugurated amidst much fanfare at the Sasihthula beach. The inauguration ceremony had attendance from the who's who of the political community of Mangaluru including Tourism Minister of Karnataka. R.V. Deshpande, AB Ibrahim, Deputy Commissioner, Dakshin Kannada; M. Chandra Sekhar, Commissioner of Police, and Abhay Chandra Jain, Youth Sports Minister.