Back from ligament injury, Pranati Nayak targets higher D-score ahead of Asian meet

Back after a successful return, experienced top Indian gymnast Pranati Nayak says she will now focus on increasing her difficulty level ahead of the Asian Championships after making a successful return from injury with a silver medal at the FIG World Challenge Cup in Tashkent.

The 31-year-old Tokyo Olympian, who is also a three-time Asian Championships bronze medallist in vault, returned to international competition after a gap of nearly seven months, winning a silver at the FIG World Challenge Cup in Uzbekistan.

With a packed calendar ahead of her in Asian Championships, Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games, Pranati, who is training in the national camp under Ashok Mishra at the High-Performance Centre in Bhubaneswar, will gradually refine her execution,

landings and the D-score (difficulty level). The June 18-21 meet in China will be a crucial for the Asian Games qualification. The Government has also approved `36.59 lakh for the Indian contingent’s participation at the Zunyi meet. “With the Asian Championships just three weeks away, the focus is now on improving execution and landing. Asian Games qualification will happen from there, so I have to increase my difficulty level,” Pranati said during a virtual media interaction facilitated by SAI. Pranati clinched silver in the women’s vault final with an average score of 13.025 after scoring 12.950 and 13.100 across her two vaults. The road to Tashkent had been anything but smooth.

She missed the Senior National Championships in April after viral fever and tonsillitis and admitted that just two weeks before the competition she had almost lost hope of competing. “To tell the truth, before the competition I had viral fever and my training had almost stopped.

I was disappointed and felt it might not happen. But sir kept telling me not to give up,” she said.

“We focused more on quality training rather than too many repetitions because I needed to save energy and protect the body.”

Renewed confidence ahead of Big Three: Pranati said the medal has now given her renewed confidence heading into a crucial season featuring the Big Three:

Asian Championships, Commonwealth Games and Asian Games.

“I had not competed internationally for five to six months, so this exposure was very important. My biggest focus was on getting clean landings. Sir told me not to overthink and just trust my landing. After this competition, the fear has reduced and that will help me going forward,” she said.

The experienced gymnast said balancing difficulty with execution would be key in the coming months.

“Both execution and difficulty will be equally important. We cannot compromise on either,” she said.

Pranati added that she is currently most comfortable with her handspring front 360 and Tsukahara back 360 vaults, while gradually preparing to reintroduce the more difficult Tsukahara 720.

“I have started training the 720 again. Right now, the focus is on safe landings because there is still pressure on the ankle while landing. Slowly, over the next few weeks, we will increase it,” she said.

Grade II ligament tear: Her coach, Ashok Mishra, revealed that Pranati had suffered a Grade Two ligament tear in the ankle after the World Championships last October.

“She is around 90 per cent recovered now. We deliberately reduced the training load to protect the ankle, but considering she was returning after seven months, her execution was very good,” Mishra said.

He added that the original plan was for Pranati to compete in four World Cups and the Senior Nationals before illness disrupted the schedule.

“She missed the Senior Nationals because of viral fever, but the federation allowed her to compete at the World Challenge Cup, considering her experience,” he said.

Mishra said Pranati’s workload and vault selection are now being carefully managed keeping the major competitions ahead in mind.

“In competition the landing surface is hard, but in training, we are using double soft landing mats to reduce the impact on the ankle,” he explained.

“The Sukahara double twist is the vault with which she won a medal at the last Asian Championships and we are trying to bring that back.

But the final decision will depend on the level of competition, especially after assessing the Chinese gymnasts and their difficulty.”

“Her handspring front 360 and Tsukahara back 360 are stable. If her execution improves slightly, she can push the score to around 13.3 or 13.4.”

“If the competition becomes tougher, we may go with the Sukahara double twist along with one of the 360 vaults. All three major events ahead will be extremely competitive.”

“She is also training the Tsukahara 720 now, but that vault depends heavily on her run-up speed. Since the landing impact is high, we are being careful and continuing with double mats in training,” he added.

Financial assistance: Under TOPS, Pranati received financial assistance of Rs 5.89 lakh along with coach Ashok Mishra and physiotherapist Dr Sweta Attili for participation of the Tashkent meet.

In another major boost, TOPS sanctioned Rs 75.65 lakh for an international training camp in the United Kingdom and participation in two overseas competitions as part of India’s long-term gymnastics preparations for the Olympic and Asian Games cycle. However, Pranati missed that exposure trip because of injury.