PANAJI: Teenaged surfer, Sugar Shanti Banarse from Goa clinched the silver medal in women’s open category at the ‘Covelong Classic National Surf and SUP (Stand-up Paddling) championships 2021’ in Kovalam, Tamil Nadu.
The event organised by Surf Turf in collaboration with the Surfing Federation of India from August 9-11, assumes importance considering that the sport of surfing made its Olympic debut in Tokyo this year.
Sugar is very happy with her performance and said: “This was an amazing experience and I am looking forward to my next competition. I plan to put more time into surfing and encourage more girls to take up the sport.”
Sugar, a resident of Alto Porvorim, beat back many experienced surfers to win second position. The media release issued by her Goan coach Edy Rodrigues on Thursday, said that there was a combined category for women of all age groups.
The 15-year-old Sugar has been training with her coach, Edy Rodrigues of the Octopus Surf School at Morjim for the last three years.
According to Rodrigues, he started his school in 2015 with the main objective of building a surf community in Goa. “Right now, we have more than 30 young students aged below the age of 16 training with me. We also have lot of adults regularly getting into the sport,” he said.
Tamil Nadu surfers, Shristhi Selvam and D Manikandan emerged winners in the women’s and men’s categories respectively.
