Gymnastics team penalised at 2018 Commonwealth Games for not having ‘national emblem’

The Indian women’s gymnastics trio of Aruna Budda Reddy, Praniti Nayak and Praniti Das was docked points at the 2018 Commonwealth Games and also received three penalty points for not wearing identical leotards during women’s team final.

The women’s gymnastics trio of Aruna Budda Reddy, Praniti Nayak and Praniti Das was docked points at the 2018 Commonwealth Games after it was found that the ‘national emblem’ was missing from their attire. (CWG live updates)

The Indian women’s gymnastics trio of Aruna Budda Reddy, Praniti Nayak and Praniti Das was not even wearing identical leotards during the 2018 Commonwealth Games team final.(HT Photo)

The three also received penalty points as they were not wearing identical leotards during the women’s team final on Friday.

The gymnastics fraternity is shocked how the coaching staff and the Indian Olympic Association officials missed the specifications. “It’s quite surprising how such a big error has happened in an international event,” said Bisweshwar Nandi, the coach of Dipa Karmakar, who is not competing at the Games due to injury.

Gymnastics had been in the midst of a selection controversy even before the team boarded the flight to Gold Coast because of the long-standing feud between two factions in the federation, none of which is recognised by the sports ministry.

In fact, the international federation had to step in so that a team could be sent to the Games.

While the women’s team has been docked a point, Aruna Budda Reddy, Pranati Das and Pranati Nayak have been penalised 0.3 points each for not complying with the dress code. “India has received a penalty of 1.0 point in the team final due to not identical leotards…. Aruna Reddy, Pranati Das and Pranati Nayak have been penalised 0.3 points each in the balance beam due to the missing national emblem,” read the note below the score sheet.

“The coach/manager should pay attention to these details. The girls too are experienced and they should have taken care of it. If the attire does not have an emblem, we pin it before the competition,” said Nandi.

The women’s team is being accompanied by coach Minera Begum, who did not respond to the calls.

Gymnastics chief coach GS Bawa, too, conceded it should not have gone unnoticed. “It is an embarrassing error and should not have happened. They are all experienced people and aware of international norms,” he said.

According to the artistic gymnastics rulebook, “They (gymnasts) must wear a national identification or emblem on the leotard/unitard in accordance with the most recent FIG (international gymnastics federation) publicity rules.

“For missing the national emblem/and wrong placement under ‘Violations of Attire’, 0.30 penalty points will be deducted from Gym/App from the final score, while for not wearing identical leotards, the team will receive one penalty point.”

With a total of 128.975 points, the team finished seventh.