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Indian gymnast Dipa Karmakar's heroics at the Rio Olympics impressed one and all. Her daredevilry in the vault and her perfection with the Produnova exercise were superb displays of skill. Despite it all, however, she missed out on a historic Olympic medal by a fraction of a point.
Not since Ashish Kumar made the nation take notice with his exploits at the 2010 Commonwealth Games had the sport enjoyed such attention in India.
Pranati Nayak will now hope to continue that legacy as she participates in the individual all-around event at the Tokyo Olympics. She won a bronze medal at the 2019 Asian Championships in Ulaanbaatar.
Only the second female gymnast after Dipa Karmakar to make the cut
By earning a place at the Tokyo Olympics, Pranati Nayak is only the second Indian female gymnast to have made the cut after Dipa Karmakar at the Rio Olympics in 2016.
Prior to that, gymnastics was an all-male bastion, back in the fifties and sixties. This was when Punjabi athletes used to show their prowess, even if they didn't feature in the top 15 globally.
After the sixties, however, there was a brief lull before India returned to prominence in the early 2010s. Following Dipa Karmakar's performance at the Rio Olympics, gymnastics is once again one of the most prominent individual sports in India.
And Pranati Nayak is all set to repeat her legacy in Tokyo.
Can Pranati do what Dipa couldn't?
Pranati has made the cut for both the all-around and the vault. However, the main question is whether she can match and possibly excel Dipa Karmakar's performance in the vault.
Executing her landing in the Produnova vault will be key to Pranati's success. It is one of the most difficult challenges of the vault event, akin to executing a perfect 10 on the balance beam in gymnastics; something only the likes of Nadia Comaneci can boast of.
However, if she manages to pull it off without a hitch, Pranati Nayak will create history in the same way Saina Nehwal did in the sport of badminton at the Beijing Olympics in 2008. All she needs to do is to keep her wits about her.
