Pranati Nayak edges Dipa Karmakar in FIG World Challenge Cup 

Dipa Karmakar failed to make it through to the final of the FIG World Challenge Cup, which is currently taking place in Szombathely, Hungary. Rakesh Patra and Pranati Nayak both qualified for the finals after competing in their respective events on Friday, September 8.

Dipa, who was also left out of India’s Asian Games 2023 team, had a disappointing outing as she finished ninth in the qualification stage of the women’s vault. Pranati, on the other hand, finished fifth in the qualification stage and will be taking part in the vault final, consisting of eight participants. Rakesh Patra is set to compete in the Rings Final.

The 28-year-old Pranati performed Forward Handspring salto 360 and Tsukahara straight full twist 360. The other gymnasts who advanced to the final are Croatia’s Tijana Korent, Georgia’s Dorien Motten, Hungary’s Greta Mayer, the Czech Republic’s Alice Vlkova, Greece’s Athanasia Mesiri, China’s Makareno Pinto and Iceland’s Thelma Adalsteinsdottir.

Dipa Karmakar misses out on Asian Games berth

Earlier this year in July, Karmakar had topped the women’s trials for the Asian Games. However, it was Pranati who was picked ahead of her. Pranati, India’s lone gymnast in the tournament scheduled to take place in Hangzhou, China, was selected because of her performance in the Asian Championships that took place in June in Singapore.

As per the Union Sports Ministry’s selection criterion, “The performance of the sports persons should not be less than the performance achieved by the eighth position holder of the 2018 Asian Games.”

Pranati, who is the third Indian gymnast to win an international medal on the vault after Karmakar and Aruna Reddy, was picked for the tournament as she had the best scores amongst all the Indian women gymnasts in the 2022-23 period. Rakesh Patra also bagged the top spot in the trials, but due to the same selection criterion he missed out on a berth for the Asian Games.