Pranati Nayak the gymnast looking to keep a footprint in CWG, Asian Games

In a sport like gymnastics which doesn’t have much of a footprint in India, the petite Pranati Nayak is the most familiar name after Dipa Karmakar faded away. The 31-year-old, who capped a comeback from serious injury with a silver in the recent World Challenge Cup in Tashkent, now wants to put her country back in the gymnastics map at the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games later this year.

It’s not easy to compete at the highest level at her age and Pranati’s think tank wants her to ease into the ‘higher difficulty’ as she had been out of action for nearly seven months.  ‘’The silver medal has certainly restored my confidence ahead of a packed schedule this year – starting with the Asian Championship, then CWG and Asian Games. Despite my lack of training hours, sir (Ashok Mishra) suggested that I take up an international competition to test my readiness,’’ Pranati remarked during a virtual media interaction for selected media hosted by Sports Authority of India (SAI).

An Olympian in Tokyo 2020, Pranati is currently part of the women’s artistic gymnastics (WAG) national coaching camp underway at the High-Performance Centre (HPC) of Bhubaneswar from 22 May to 20 June 2026. The camp is being conducted in preparation for the 13th Senior Asian Championships to be held in Zunyi, China from 25-28 June.

She is the leading member of the Indian senior WAG team in the competition as the camp in Bhubaneswar has been approved a total budget of of Rs 23.52 lakh from SAI and includes 21 campers - comprising both senior and junior gymnasts. ‘’The Asian event in Zunyi will serve as the selection trials for both CWG and Asiad and it will see tough competition. In CWG, there are strong nations like UK, Australia or Canada while Asian Games will have gymnasts from China, Japan, Korea and the Philippines,’’ remarked coach Mishra, who had been the mentor for the gymnast for nearly last four years.

‘’Last December, Pranati had an ankle injury but was extremely committed to come back as soon as possible. Our target was to make her ready to participate in Nationals which was not possible – but the federation eventually made an exception to allow her to participate in the World Cup,’’ the coach added. She clinched the silver in women’s vault final, her main event, with an average score of 13.025 after logging 12.950 and 13.100 across her two vaults.

Going forward, Pranati says she will focus on increasing the ‘difficulty’ and landing – the key to doing well in the continental events. Taking up the sport as a tender eight-year-old at the SAI centre, Kolkata, she considers it as a second home though she has now moved to the Gymnastics High Performance Centre in Bhubaneswar for some time. ‘’It’s been two decades that I had been associated with SAI and their role in shaping my career had been paramount,’’ said the gymnast, who is covered under the Target Olympics Podium Scheme (TOPS) of the Union sports ministry.

Both Pranati and coach Mishra, meanwhile, are pragmatic about her continuing till the next Olympics in Los Angeles 2028 or the CWG in India in 2030. ‘’I will be 33 by the times LA 2028 comes and will have to see how my body holds. If this year goes well, my target will be to qualify for the 2027 World Championships first and take it from there.

 ‘’The CWG 2030, however, is still too far away - though who doesn’t like performing before the home crowd?’’ she concluded.