India's debut at the ISA World Surfing Games 2023 in El Salvador came to a close with Ramesh Budihal's exit in the second repechage round. This marked the first time that an Indian surfing team participated in the prestigious event, which has been held since 1964.
The Indian team, consisting of Ramesh Budihal, Ajeesh Ali, and Sivaraj Babu tried their luck in the event. Budihal put up a remarkable performance, progressing to repechage round 2.
In the initial round, Ramesh Budihal finished third in his four-member heat group, scoring 6.43 points and backed it up with a better score of 6.84 to progress to the repechage round 2 heat. In this round, despite putting up a score of 8.14, he bowed out as he finished fourth.
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Meanwhile, Babu and Ali were knocked out in the first repechage round after they finished last in their respective groups with scores of 4.76 and 5.10 respectively.
However, Babu created history as he was the first India to hit the waves at the World Surfing Games in its 59 years of history when he competed in the first-round heats at the La Bocana beach.
What did Sivaraj Babu say?
“That means that it started, that Indians have started coming and hopefully in a few years, the champions will come from India,” Sivaraj Babu told Olympics.com.
“I watched the flag and them (Indian contingent) waving, supporting me. It made me super happy,” he added.
What is the scoring pattern of surfing?
Surfing competitions employ a scoring system where a panel of five judges evaluates the performance of athletes based on several criteria, including the level of difficulty, speed, power, flow, and execution of maneuvers. To determine a surfer's score, the highest and lowest scores given by the judges are eliminated, and the athlete is awarded the average of the three remaining scores.
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