Varun feels that the public perception of the sport will change as and when they try it out for themselves.
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Among the many sports that are popular in India, sailing is not one of them. There are multiple reasons behind it. To begin with, not everyone is living in a coastal area, besides a lack of awareness for the sport at the grassroot level, and not to mention the safety concerns that are associated with the sport. However, Olympic-bound sailors Varun Thakkar and KC Ganapathy have asserted that safety is not an issue that people need to worry about when taking sailing as a career option.
Responding to a question from Sportslumo during a virtual press conference conducted by the Sports Authority of India (SAI), Varun said, “The sport is very safe because we have safety rules as well. I think as people come to try it out, they understand that it’s much safer than what it’s portrayed as and what it actually is.”
Having said that, he believes it will take time for the popularity of the sport to increase in the country. “It’s a long process, we know it’s going to take time for it to become popular,” Varun added.
Ganapathy, who was also present during the interaction, concurred with his colleague, saying, “Like Varun said it’s not going to be an overnight process due to all the conceptions of fear and all of that, but sailing is really safe.”
“Infact if you just go to the beach and swim it is more dangerous because people go there not knowing about the tides, currents and all that.”
In a historic first, four sailors will represent India in the upcoming Tokyo Games. They are Nethra Kumanan (Laser Radial) – the first woman sailor from India to make it to the Olympics – Vishnu Saravanan (Laser Standard Class), Ganapathy and Thakkar (Skiff 49er).
“Us qualifying, the Asian games medal and all of that really helps. Definitely in the future we are going to be working on like improving sailing and making it bigger so it’s not gonna be an overnight story,” he added.
Varun is also determined on inspiring more people into taking up the sport in the future. “I think Gana, myself, Vishnu and Nethra, and the bunch that’s coming up will have a lot of impact on this, especially after this qualification. We hope to keep doing better and better and inspiring more people to join the sport.”
Both Varun and Ganapathy want to continue training under the Australian coach Ian Stuart Warren. “We have been working with (Warren). We are the fifth team that he has helped qualify for the Olympics. The experience he brings in helps in keeping our mind calm,” Varun said.
“We work with him privately, we take money from our parents and hire him during big events, so we want to have him at the Games as well.”
At the Mussanah Open Sailing Championships last month, Varun and Ganapathy had qualified for the Olympics in the 49er category. The duo was inducted to the Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) following their qualification from the sport, alongside Vishnu and Nethra.
When asked if the Yachting Association of India has decided on the allocation of coaches, Varun said, “We have requested for our coach to come. Yes, we know that Nethra (Kumanan) and Vishnu (Saravanan) have different coaches and we have a different coach.”
“Nethra has worked with Alex (Alexandra Danisic), who is Vishnu’s coach. Nethra’s coach will be with the Greece team. So we have asked for Alex and Bunny Warren to be at the Games for four of us. YAI and SAI are working on and hopefully we should have a postive result.”
