Produced by: Hitansh Gaur
17-year-old Neha Thakur bagged another silver medal for the country in the girl’s dinghy ILCA-4 event at the ongoing Asian Games 2023. The teen created history as this was India’s first medal in sailing at the Asian Games.
Neha Thakur is the daughter of a farmer from Amlataj Village of Hatpipalia tehsil in Dewas district of Madhya Pradesh. The 17-year-old sailor trained at the National Sailing School of Bhopal.
Last year, Thakur won a bronze and gold medal at the Asian Sailing Championships in Abu Dhabi. Another Indian sailor, Ritika Dangi won gold at last year’s event. The two podium finishes helped the duo qualify for the Asian Games.
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There are eleven races in the girl’s dinghy ILCA 4 category, which is defined as a one-design dinghy class in the laser series and is a one-design class of sailboat.
The Indian sailor finished the event with 32 points in total, but her net score of 27 got her the second spot after the gold medalist Noppassorn Khunboonjan of Thailand. Thakur won one of her eleven races while finishing second in two. Her worst race was the fifth one, where she scored just five points.
India also bagged another Sailing medal on Day 3 as Eabad Ali finished third in the Men’s Windsurfer RS:X event with a net score of 52. Ali’s best races were his sixth and fourteenth races in the category.
India added another gold on Tuesday with the win in Equestrian team dressage. With that and the brilliant sailing performances of Neha Thakur and Eabad Ali, the medal tally of India is now at fourteen with three gold, four silver and seven bronze medals.
India has two more medal prospects on the third day as Indian judoka Tulika Maan will fight for the bronze medal later in the day. Meanwhile, the team of Likith Selvaraj, Srihari Nataraj, Sajan Prakash and Tanish George Matthew have qualified for the final round of 4x100 medley relay heats in swimming.