(Reuters) – Five sailors to watch out for at the Tokyo Olympics:
HANNAH MILLS (BRITAIN)
British sailor Mills went from the lowest of lows to the highest of highs at in Rio de Janeiro. She and her then-team mate Saskia Clark were robbed at knifepoint while training in Rio in 2014, but they went on to win the gold medal at the Games held in the Brazilian city two years later.
With the Tokyo Games put back a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 32-year-old has delayed retiring form the sport to compete in the women’s 470 class.
SANTIAGO LANGE (ARGENTINA)
At the age of 59, six-time Olympian Lange is returning to the Games to defend the Nacra 17 title he won in Rio with Cecilia Carranza.
A four-time world champion, Lange also won bronze medals at the Athens and Beijing Games. He was diagnosed with cancer in 2014 and had part of a lung removed before making a complete recovery and eventually winning Olympic gold two years later.
KIRAN BADLOE (NETHERLANDS)
The 26-year-old Dutch windsurfer will be hoping to fill the gap left by the retirement of his compatriot Dorian van Rijsselberghe, who won gold at the London and Rio Games.
Badloe, who won the RS:X world championship race in Cadiz, Spain in April, comes into the Games in good form and currently tops the World Sailing rankings ahead of Italy’s Mattia Camboni.
NETHRA KUMANAN (INDIA)
The 23-year-old engineering student from Chennai will become the first female sailor to represent India at the Olympics.
She booked her ticket to Tokyo by winning the Laser Radial event in the Mussanah Open Championship in Oman, a joint Asian and African Olympic qualifying event, in April and is now aiming to popularise the sport in her country.
“Most people don’t know sailing exists in India. Our sports are cricket, football or hockey and it’s more the navy or the army that sail,” she said following a recent World Cup race.
BLANCA MANCHON (SPAIN)
Having made her Olympic debut aged 17 in Athens, where she finished eighth, windsurfer Manchon returns to the Olympics after a 17-year absence during which she was dropped by her main sponsor when she became pregnant in 2016.
Now mother to son Noah and a successful businesswoman, Manchon told the Olympic Channel: “The only thing I’m missing is an Olympic medal, and I will have the chance to get it at Tokyo 2020.”
(Reporting by Philip O’Connor; Editing by Ken Ferris)
