Maldives surfer Ammaday surfed his way to glory and the winners cheque in the Open category of the second edition of the Indian Open of Surfing competition at Sasithlu beach here on Sunday.
The Open category winner was awarded a cheque worth Rs 50,000 while runner-up French surfer Perceval Fayon earned Rs 25,000.
Pondicherry's Suhasini Damian emerged the champion in the Women's category while Tamil Nadu surfers Venkat K. and Sekar Patchai claimed the top spots in the Masters (30 years and above) and Seniors (23-30 years) categories, respectively.
The women's category saw stiff competition but Puducherry girl Suhasini braved the waves to emerge as the winner, while Russian Olga Kosenko finished second and Manipal's Ishita Malviya finished third.
Sekar walked away with the winners cheque in the Men's Stand-Up Paddling (SUP) race. While Tamil Nadu's Vignesh Vijay Kumar finished second. Kishore Kumar from Mangalore finished third in the Men's SUP race.
Chennai's Venkat K. and Murthy Mevagan stole the show in the Masters category finishing first and second respectively while Goan surfer Sandeep Samuel finished third.
The Seniors category saw domination from Chennai Surfers with the first, second and third positions going to Sekar, Varghese Antony and Dharani Selvakumar respectively.
Kovallam surfer Ramesh walked away emerged champion in the junior category, while Surya P. and Rahul Govind finished second and third respectively.
In the Groms under-16 category Kovallam's Ajeesh Ali was crowned the national champion while Santosh Santha Kumar and Sivaraj Babu finished second and third respectively.
The National Category winners earned a total of Rs 25,000 while the second and third positions walked away with cheques worth Rs 15,000 and Rs 10,000 respectively.
In the Novice Under-14 category, Akhilan emerged the champion with Subramani Muniyan finishing second and Abdul Rajak Jamaldeen finishing third respectively.
Akhilan took home a cheque of Rs 10,000 while Subramani and Abdul were richer by Rs 5,000 and Rs 3,000 respectively.
"I would like to congratulate all the winners for their stupendous performance. I would also like to give a huge round of applause to all the participants as well for daring to brave the sea in difficult conditions," said Kishore Kumar, President of Surfing Federation of India, who himself bagged the third spot in Men's Stand-up Paddling race.
"It is always special to see so many surfers come together for the Indian Open of Surfing. In only our second edition not only the surfing community in India but locals as well as the government has seen the potential of this event."
"Now with Surfing becoming a part of the Asian Games, I am extremely confident that events like these will add immense value towards preparing future surfers from India," he added.
--IANS
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