Asian Games: Indian gymnast Pranati Nayak averages 12.716 on vault to top subdivision 1 | Asian-games News
India’s only artic gymnast at Hangzhou, Pranati Nayak averaged a competitive 12.716 on the vault to top the subdivision 1, which had the South Koreans, on the favoured apparatus. Though she will have her fingers crossed with top vaulters still to feature in the second and third subdivisions, not all Chinese, Uzbekis and Japanese perform both vaults in qualification, leaving the door ajar for her to make the vault finals.
Chinese Taipei, Singapore and North Korea will feature in subdivision 2, while the Chinese, Japanese and Uzbek legend Oksana Chusovitina will come in the third.
You can follow all the action from day 2 of the Asian Games on our liveblog. You can also read dispatches from Mihir Vasavda, our man on the ground in Hangzhou.
Pranati could’ve easily gone upto 12.900 if not for minor errors in execution. On her first vault, a Tsukahara back straight 360, with single rotation, Pranati overshot a few steps in landing and her execution saw a little opening of the feet pre flight that gave her a score in the 12.8 range, though she regularly notches 13+ at World Cups on the Tsuk-360.
Her second vault, the Forward Handspring 360 turn, tuck front salto witnessed an incorrect execution with only a tuck and once more an opening of feet on flight, plus a hop on landing.
Pranati had averaged 12.733 on the vault at the Asian Championships in June, but will need to haul up her scores on both vaults, and drag herself out of makes, to get into medal contention should she make the final on September 28. She is expected to gun for a Tsukahara 720 if she makes finals. “I just try to always do my best. I’m not finished with my competition yet, but after that I’ll discuss that with my coach,” she told the Games website after her routine. “My confidence level is good and I’m building more confidence,” she added.Most Read
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India’s vault scores have dropped since the last Asiad when Pranati herself scored 13.425 and Aruna Reddy had 13.225 in qualification. Dipa Karmakar was not allowed to compete this time, despite topping the national trials.
The equipment at Hangzhou posed a challenge to Pranati as it was a wee bit hard, and she has another 3 days before the apparatus final to make corrections.
The Indian scored 10.300 on uneven bars, but had a subpar 9.833 on the floor exercise in her second rotation, besides her 11.233 on the beam. On what caused her fall on floor exercise in the second rotation, she told the website, “I had some injury in my shin bone, maybe that’s why.” Pranati tallied 44.232 on the all around score.
