With Asian Games looming, Pranati gets a confidence boost

Competing for the first time since the controversial selection, the 28-year-old qualified for the vault final in Hungary while Dipa Karmakar missed the cut.

It was a face-off few saw coming. Less than a month after being snubbed for the Asian Games, gymnast Dipa Karmakar and Hangzhou-bound Pranati Nayak were in action at the FIG World Challenge Cup in Szombathely, Hungary, on Friday. Nayak finished fifth in the qualification and made it to the eight-woman vault final while Karmakar ended ninth, failing to make the cut.

It was Karmakar's first international competition since her 21-month doping ban and Nayak's presence — the 28-year-old pipped Karmakar to the Asian Games seat — had set up a tantalising sub-plot. Karmakar, however, was troubled by a niggle in her right knee and went for "safer" vaults, her coach Bishweshwar Nandi said.

"It's the same knee on which she underwent the Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) surgery. Her knee was troubling her in India but we thought she had been out of competition for far too long, so it was important to compete, albeit with safer vaults," Nandi said from Szombathely.

"Also, one can't deny the mental stress Dipa was under thanks to the Asian Games selection issue," he added.

For Nayak, however, the Hungary outing will be a major confidence boost ahead of the Asian Games.

"It will really help her confidence. She performed Tsukahara straight full twist 360 and Forward Handspring salto 360 today but in the final, she will go all out and do the forward vault in a tucked position," said coach Ashok Mishra.

"We also had trouble getting the visa. We got our visas on September 5 and our flights were booked for the next day. We had only one training session and the gymnasts had little time to get used to the apparatus. Nayak's physio couldn't travel because the embassy couriered her passport to Bhubaneswar while she was in Delhi to collect it...it was utter chaos. The fact that Praniti could perform despite such issues says a lot about her mental toughness," Mishra added.

Nayak, who scored 12.850 on Friday, plans to perform the much tougher Tsukahara 720 and Handspring 360 vaults at the Asian Games. "I am looking at this event as a testing ground for my routines ahead of the Asian Games. A good performance in Hungary will put me in the right mind space ahead going into my third Asian Games," she said.

It would have been a routine overseas competition but for the context. Karmakar returned to competitions in July and topped the Asian Games selection trials in Bhubaneswar. Her delight, however, was shortlived as the sports ministry, acting as per its new selection criterion, decided to remove her name from the shortlist. The new selection criterion noted that "the performance of the sportspersons should not be less than the performance achieved by the eighth position holder of the 2018 Asian Games” in the 12 months preceding the event. Karmakar, who had not competed for close to two years leading up to the trials, missed the bus alongside everyone who appeared in the trials.

The only gymnast who made the cut for Hangzhou was Nayak. She sealed her place on the basis of her all-round score (44.43) at the Asian Championships held in Singapore in June. Karmakar's score in the trials was 47.05 points while second-placed Pranati Das managed 45.80. The individual all-round score of the eighth-placed gymnast — South Korea’s Yeo Seo-Jeong — at the 2018 Asiad was 49.900, meaning Nayak made the cut without strictly meeting the laid-out requirement.

Karmakar's coach Bishweshwar Nandi promptly called it a "conspiracy to kill gymnastics in India" while a bewildered Karmakar was left crestfallen. “What was the point of conducting those trials if I was not eligible to begin with? There has been no communication from SAI or the sports ministry,” she had said.

Nayak insisted there was no bad blood between her and Karmakar.

"We haven't spoken in months, but whatever happened with the Asian Games selection has not soured my relationship with Dipa. I still look up to her and respect her a lot," she said.

"The selection controversy hasn't affected me. I didn't read the newspapers so I don't really know what was being said," Nayak added.

Her preparations were pegged back by a ligament tear in her right shoulder which kept her out of action for five months (November 2022-March 2023). Nayak began training in May and shifted base to the Reliance high performance centre in Bhubaneswar in June.

"The injury was a result of overload. I decided not to opt for surgery. My shoulder is feeling a lot stronger now and I am ready to execute my vaults to perfection. At the Asian Games, my only fight will be against myself," she said.