Gamagori City: India opened its sailing medal account at the Asian Games as Manu Francis and Prince Kurisinkal Noble secured silver in the men’s skiff competition Thursday, finishing behind China after nine races.
The Indian pair closed the regatta with 23 points, four more than the Chinese combination of Wen Zaiding and Liu Tian, who took gold with 16. Hong Kong China’s Akira Luke Sakai and Russel Aylsworth completed the podium with 24 points.
Francis and Noble produced a steady campaign, with their strongest result coming in the third race, which they won. The Indian sailors won Race 3 and finished second in Races 1, 5 and 9. They accumulated 29 points across the nine races, with their sixth-place finish in Race 8 discarded to arrive at a net score of 23.
The Aichi-Nagoya medal was India’s first Asian Games silver in the men’s skiff and the country’s second medal in the event. Varun Thakkar and KC Ganapathy won bronze in the men’s 49er at Jakarta 2018. Manu and Prince’s silver was also India’s 24th sailing medal at the Asian Games. At Hangzhou 2023, India won three.
Unlike most sports, sailing follows a low-point scoring system, with a race winner receiving one point, the second-placed boat two and so on. The lowest overall score wins, with the worst result discarded after the prescribed number of races.
China, however, maintained the edge at the top of the standings, winning four of the nine races.
The silver marks another milestone for Francis, 31, and Noble, 30, who have known each other since childhood. The Kochi-based sailors developed an interest in the sport early and subsequently trained at the National Sailing School in Bhopal and the Muziris Yachting Club in Kerala.
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Their Asian Games medal adds to an earlier success as a pair, having previously claimed bronze at the Asian Sailing Championships.
Skiffs are lightweight, compact sailing boats that demand considerable coordination between crew members, with race results often decided by tactical choices, positioning and consistency across multiple rounds.
Earlier, Thursday, Harshita Tomar and Shital Verma narrowly missed adding another medal, finishing fourth in the women’s skiff. The Indian pair had also finished fourth in the event at Hangzhou 2023.
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