Nethra Kumanan hones mental skills ahead of Asiad

CHENNAI : Nethra Kumanan has long been at the forefront of women’s sailing in India. She remains the only Indian woman sailor to have qualified for the Olympics, a distinction that underlines her trailblazing journey.

Having first competed at the Asian Games in 2014 at the age of 17, Nethra gears up for her fourth appearance this year.The 28-year-old from Chennai topped in all the three national trials in the ILCA 6 division and the official announcement of the Indian contingent will be done closer to the continental extravaganza. While Nethra has been a regular participant at the top-level competitions, she has not been able to live up to the billing.

The two-time Olympian finished fourth and fifth in the previous two editions of the Asiad respectively and had below-par outings in the Olympics too.“I have the technical ability but always struggled to perform under pressure in big events. So, I have been working a lot with my psychologist and coach. I do visualization exercises to prepare myself better and they have been helping me. At the last Asian Games, I had the level, and in my mind, the worst-case scenario was winning a bronze medal. But when I finished fourth, I felt that it was a clear sign that I needed to work on the mental side of my game and deliver under pressure,” Nethra told TOI from Spain.“Visualization is part of my warm-up. It is something I do when I am not racing or sailing. It was a big reason for my qualification for the Tokyo Olympics but I was never disciplined enough to keep at it,” Nethra said.