Learning from celebrated Olympic medallists, sailor Vishnu Saravanan aims at ambitious Top 10 finish at Paris Games

Last Wednesday, sailor 24-year-old Vishnu Saravanan finished 26th in the men’s ICLA-7 World Championships to earn the quota place for the Paris Olympics. It was the second successive Olympics qualification for the Indian Army subedar who spent some time listening to 2012 silver medallist and two-time world champion 33-year-old Pavlos Kontides of Cyprus at the Adelaide Sailing Club.

With Kontides being a veteran of four Olympics and competing in his fifth Games in Paris, Vishnu was all ears for the Cyprus sailor, post the finish.

“It’s definitely nice to be able to qualify again for the Olympics. It has to be the first goal in the Olympic cycle and I am glad to achieve that in Adelaide. Pavlos Kontides has been a legend in the sailing world and during the regatta the whole week, he was lined up next to me. And to hear about his experience of competing in multiple Olympics and to win a medal is perhaps the biggest motivation for me,” says Vishnu while speaking with The Indian Express.

Riding the waves to #Paris2024 ✌️ ⛵

🇮🇳’s Vishnu Saravanan has secured India’s 1⃣st #ParisOlympics quota in Sailing at the ILCA 7 World Championship, held in Adelaide, 🇦🇺

Clinching one of the 7⃣ Olympic quotas available at the event, #TOPScheme Athlete Vishnu outsailed many… pic.twitter.com/v2RAczziZ6

— SAI Media (@Media_SAI) January 31, 2024

For someone, who spent his childhood watching his father Ramachandran Saravanan windsurf at the Army Yachting Node in Mumbai, Saravanan’s tryst with a sailboat started at the age of nine. The youngster often learnt his lessons on the Optimist, a light sail having hull weight of 35 Kg as compared to ILCA-7’s hull weight of 58.97 Kg.

Four appearances in world and Asian championships in the light sail dinghy were followed by the youngster making his debut in the ICLA-7 class in 2017. It was a historic bronze in the Laser U-21 World Championship in Croatia in 2018, which put the young Indian on the sailing world map. “My father put a lot of emphasis on the need for physical strength right from my younger days. When I had shifted to Malta to train under Olympian Alexandr Denisuic of Moldova in 2018, I got to meet five-time Olympic champion Robert Scheidt of Brazil and Contides for the first time and they too would lay emphasis on the physical strength first apart from the right technique. As they say in the sailing world, “You need legs of steel first,” remembers Vishnu.

While he had qualified for Tokyo Olympics five months prior to the Games, the six feet six inches tall sailor finished a credible 20th out of 35 sailors in 2021. Two years after Tokyo, Vishnu won bronze in the Hangzhou Asian Games where he finished behind Singapore’s Jun Han Ryan Lo and three-time Asian Games champion Ha Jeemin of Korea. While he trains in Europe for most of the time, the youngster sees competing in Asian conditions as a learning experience. “To be frank, Tokyo was a bit overwhelming for me. But then it was a new challenge for me amid the Covid-19 protocols. At Tokyo, we had to counter a trickier bay current apart from spinning winds. The course had different wind speeds and it made everyone’s task a bit trickier. If I compare Tokyo with China, the bay in Hangzhou saw a lot of tidal waves and oscillating winds,” remembers Vishnu.

Steering technique important

Vishnu had his first chance to qualify for Paris in December last year where he finished fourth in the Asian Championships in Thailand. In Adelaide, Vishnu finished with a score of 174 points out of ten races with his least score of 49 being subtracted from the total resulting in a net of 125, with him being the best-placed Asian sailor at the 26th spot among 152.

In comparison, Tokyo Olympics gold medallist Mattew Wearen of Australia won the title with a net score of 24 points with points in ascending order for the next finishers. Vishnu’s best finish was a second-place finish in his fourth race. “There was a lot of seaweed in Adelaide Sea and the main challenge was to see that the rudder does not get embroiled in that. Winds were in the range of 20-25 knots for some races and 10-15 knots for some. So for 15-17 mins of each race, our heart rate would be close to 170. Tackling the ropes with the wind situation meant that the skin of my hands got very rough. But then that’s life as a sailor.”

While he will head to meet his grandparents at Vellore in Tamil Nadu, Vishnu would shift base to Malta apart from Valencia, Spain, along with foreign coach Milan Vujasinovic in the coming weeks.

At Valencia, where he trains, the Indian stays with a group of International sailors and trains five days per week including three hours of sailing per day coupled with strength and cardio training. “A normal day starts at six in the morning with a gym session followed by sailing in the afternoon. Depending on wind conditions, we opt for light or heavy cardio and strength training later in the evening. That’s what we follow most of the week. The only time when I think about other things is when I make lasagna or bake my own bread or when we play Padel, a mix of tennis and squash, with my training group,” says the sailor.

The Indian has been to Marseille Marina, the venue for the sailing events for the Paris Olympics, during last year’s test event. With the Marseille coast having less of tides or current, Vishnu believes the challenge will be to be tactically and strategically right.

“At Paris, the sea state is much different than in Tokyo. The sea is much smoother and one relies more on technique and steering the dinghy better. As a sailor, I learn every day. Sometimes, I see youtube videos of sailors like double Olympics silver medallist Tonci Stipanovic of Croatia and Kontides on how to position the body on the boat and whether to be smooth or rough on the steering apart from a perfect mainsail trimming technique,” says Vishnu.

Just before the conversation ends, the Indian is quick to add, “I too want to win an Olympic medal some day. To be realistic, a top-ten finish in Paris is a target for me.”

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