World Artistic Gymnastics Championships: Indian gymnastics has got a long way to go before it is ready to compete at world level

India’s campaign at the 50th World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, held at Kitakyushu General Gymnasium in Japan, ended on a disappointing note as the six-member national team, including three in the women’s category performed poorly in their respective events.

After the women’s artistic squad consisting of Aruna Budda Reddy, Pranati Das and Shraddha Talekar finished bottom in all-round qualification, as per the results the men’s squad too failed to impress in the all-round as well as individual events on Wednesday during the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships.

According to the results of the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, India’s Yogeshwar Singh scored 76.498 points in the all-round qualification to finish 30th in the field of 53 competitors. Abhijeet Kumar was 46th in the field. He scored 73.331 points. During all-round qualification, the top 24 advance to the medal round.

National selection trials were held last month at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Sports Complex in New Delhi. Yogeshwar scored 77.025 points while Abhijeet scored 76.525 points during the trials.

Ashish Kumar, India’s 2010 Commonwealth and Asian Games medalist in gymnastics too wasn’t impressive. He finished 65th in the rings.

Sudhir Mittal believes Indian athletes will win medals in gymnastics at the 2022 Commonwealth and Asian Games

Despite not-so encouraging performances at the world championships in Japan, the Gymnastics Federation of India (GFI) was optimistic of elite Indian gymnasts finishing among medal winners at the 2022 Commonwealth and Asian Games.

“I believe the elite Indian gymnasts have the potential of winning a medal at the 2022 Commonwealth Games. The Indian team can also win a medal at the 2022 Asian Games in China,” said Sudhir Mittal, president of the GFI.

In preparation for the 2022 season, the GFI plans to conduct national camps on a regular basis and also send national teams for the 2022 World Cups as well as for international exposure tour to Europe.

“The GFI will shortly send a proposal to the Sports Authority of India (SAI) for its approval to send the national squad to international competitions and exposure tour to Europe in 2022,” said GFI president.

The GFI also plans to conduct the national championships next month in Jammu.