 "Sailing champ Saravanan qualifies for Tokyo, makes Army proud")
Indian Army's Madras Engineer Group (MEG)'s Naib Subedar Vishnu Saravanan confirmed his berth to Tokyo Olympics 2020 in Laser Standard Class scheduled to start in 2021.
According to the statement released by the Defence Public Relation office here on Friday, stated that Saravanan participated in the Mussanah sailing championship - Asian and Africa Olympic Qualifier Event 2020-21 at Mussanah, Oman - from April 1 to April 8, 2021 and qualified for Tokyo Olympics in Laser Standard Class.
The statement added that with an aim to secure an entry for participation in the Tokyo Olympics 2020, Saravanan had undergone training at Malta, Europe under the Sail Coach Academy for the past two years.
He had enrolled into Boys Sports Company, MEG and Centre in 2015 as a Boys Sports Cadet and he is son of Subedar Major Ramachandran Saravanan who is a Madras Sappers Sailor. Sarvanan's father retired last year from the Indian Army Yachting Node at South Mumbai as Subedar Major.
After joining MEG Boys Sports Company, with self-determination and support from the MEG he participated in Junior National and Youth National Championships and won medals. The performance of the individual has been consistently evolving and he participated in the Hong Kong Sailing Week - 2016 (ASAF Series - 2) and won a silver medal in Laser Class.
He has participated in 30 international events with 13 'top three' finishes.
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Besides this, he has participated in ten Senior and Youth National championships and won Gold medals in all the categories.
Based on these outstanding performances he was enrolled into Madras Engineer Group (MEG) as a direct entry Naib Subedar (Junior Commissioned Officer) in the year 2017.
After enrolment into the Army, Naib Subedar Vishnu Saravanan won his first Gold Medal in Senior National championship 2018 and since then he has participated in several international championships.
He participated in the Laser Youth U-21 World Sailing Championship 2019 held at Croatia, Europe from 26 October to 02 November 2019 and won Bronze Medal in Laser Under-21 category where a total of 144 sailors from 41 countries had participated./Eom/340 words
--IANS
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