Pranati confident of putting up a good show at Worlds

Pranati Nayak had long dreamt of an international medal. Ever since she was eight years old, and got hooked to gymnastics - training away from her parents in Midnapore- she wanted to win on the international stage. During the Senior Asian Championships last week, she finally vaulted herself to a bronze medal which has given her the belief and much-needed confidence ahead of World Championships.

Pranati, who had finished fourth in vault in the 2017 Asian Championships, executed two confident landings to score 13.384 on the vault at Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.

“It was a very important medal for me. I have played in the finals in the past also but I was either finishing fourth or sixth. During the Commonwealth Games last year, I made mistakes in landing. Ever since I started gymnastics in 2003, it was my dream to win an international medal. When I finished fourth in the Asian Championships it gave me confidence that I can win internationally,” Pranati told DH.

Before the finals at Mongolia, a chat with her childhood coach Minara Begum and manager Rohit Jaiswal helped. “They constantly told me that I could do it. I worked especially hard on my landings. I did Tsukahara 360 back double twist and front 360 somersault half twist. Both had difficulty levels of 4.8. I executed them with perfection,” said the 24-year-old, who works with the Railways.

“I would like to dedicate my medal to Minara mam and my father. He is a state bus driver, it was tough for him to fund my training, but he supported me in every possible way.”

Pranati was spotted by Minara, former coach at Sports Authority of India, Kolkata, after being recommended by her school coach.

“She would stay at Salt Lake Stadium, but the arrangement became difficult. I requested for her stay at the SAI hostel, and I personally took care of her,” said Minara.

“She was initially very quiet, obviously she missed her family. So I did what all I could do. She showed great resilience as a young gymnast, was always eager to do as told. She would never say no to any task.”

Pranati now dreams to emulate Dipa Karmakar. She wants to qualify for the Olympics. For that World Championships at Stuttgart, Germany from October 4-13, is the only route.

“For that, I focus on all four apparatus and get a score of around 50. I will also try the Tsukahara 540 and Tsukahara 720 during my training for World Championships as it has a higher difficulty score. There are still three months for me to prepare. My focus though will be on the vault,” she said.