Ramesh Budhial became the first-ever Indian to enter the Open Men’s final at the Asian Surfing Championships here on Saturday. Ramesh started the day topping his quarterfinal heat race with a score of 14.84 points ahead of Philippines’ Neil Sanches (12.80 points).
In the semifinal, Ramesh continued his solid effort to score 11.43 points to finish second behind Indonesia’s Pajar Ariyana (13.83), and it ensured a maiden final berth for the Indian surfer.
India’s Kishore Kumar too entered the semifinal, but finished fourth behind compatriot Ramesh, Ariyana and China’s Shidong Wu (9.10) with 8.03 points.
Earlier, Kishore ended up in the second place in Quarterfinals Heat 4, logging 10.50 points behind Philippines’ Eduardo Alciso (12.03) to move into the last four stage. The third Indian surfer, D. Srikanth fought well and outplayed Korea’s Kanoa Heejae (10.94 points) in the quarterfinals, but was ousted as his heat score was 10.90.
In the Under-18 boys’ section, the Indian campaign ended with the exit of Harish P and Aadya Singh, and in the corresponding girl’s segment, Dhamayanthi Sriram too was eliminated in the quarterfinals.
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