India Exits Open Women's Category at Asian Surfing Championships

Chennai, Aug 7 (PTI) India's journey in the Open Women's category of the Asian Surfing Championships came to an end on the fourth day of the competition held on Thursday, with the exits of Kamali Moorthy and Shrishti Selvam.

Kamali scored 5.57 points, securing a third-place finish in heat 3 of Round 3. She was outperformed by Sumomo Sato of Japan, who scored 11.47 points, and Siqi Yang of China with 7 points.

In heat 2 of Round 3, Shrishti finished in fourth place, recording 3.03 points. She trailed behind Isabel Higgs of Thailand, who led with 12 points, Wan-Yu Chen of Taipei with 5.67 points, and Nilbie Blancada of the Philippines, who scored 5 points.

The format stipulates that the top two surfers advance directly to the quarterfinals, while the two surfers in the bottom are eliminated from the competition.

Earlier in the event, there was a glimmer of hope for India in the Open Women's Repechage Round 2.

Shrishti, with 4.66 points, and Kamali, with 8.70 points, managed to advance to Round 3 through the Repechage rounds. However, Sugar Shanti, despite a promising start, could not build upon her initial ride and was subsequently eliminated from the championship.

Meanwhile, in the under-18 section, Prahlad Sriram of India progressed to Round 3. He finished second in the Repechage round, scoring 4.60 points, just behind heat leader Aydin Kayani of Singapore, who logged 5.64 points.