Nethra Kumanan wins bronze in women's dinghy at Asian Games in Gamagori City
India's Nethra Kumanan clinched the bronze medal in the women's dinghy at the Asian Games in Gamagori City, Japan on Friday, October 2, 2026.
The 29-year-old two-time Olympian from Chennai logged 14 points in all (7 in final and 7 from qualification races) to finish third behind gold-winner Sophia Montgomery (5) of Thailand and silver-medallist Jania Ang (13) of Singapore. Points in sailing are decided by the finishing position in each race and a first place brings in one point to the total; the lowest total score wins the regatta. Kumanan won the second of her final two races and was sixth in the other, having previously competed at the 2014, 2018 and 2022 Asiads and finished fourth in two of those editions.
"Very mixed feelings. It was my fourth Asian Games, and it is nice to finally be able to go away with something, but I made a lot of mistakes and gave away a lot of points," Nethra said about her performance.
"It was windy and shifty. In the first race, I made a huge mistake at the start. I tacked without pressure, without wind, and I was immediately out of the game," she added, describing the opening of her final races.
"I knew I had to win the last race, or it would be over for me. That is what I did. I had to fight back," Nethra said.
"It's about who makes fewer mistakes and who deals with the pressure the best. I did make a lot of mistakes, but in the last race I managed to save a little bit," she said, describing sailing as a mental game.
In the men's competition, India's Vishnu Saravanan ended fourth despite claiming the second spot in both his final races as his accumulated qualification score was a slightly higher 17 points, which left him with an overall score of 21. The 27-year-old Saravanan, who is also an Olympian, had won a bronze medal in the previous edition; the men's gold went to Korea's Jeemin Ha (9), Hong Kong, China's Nicholas Halliday took silver with 11 points, and Malaysia's Mohd Khairulnizam finished with 14.
On Thursday, the Indian pair of Manu Francis and Kurisinkal Noble bagged the silver medal in the men's skiff competition, while the women's team of Harshita Tomar and Shital Verma claimed the bronze medal. It was Nethra Kumanan's first podium finish at the continental showpiece in her fourth appearance.
