After a disappointing show at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Pranati Nayak gave herself a chance to make amends by qualifying for the vault final at the Asian Games on Tuesday.The 31-year-old, India’s lone artistic gymnast at the continental meet, finished seventh in the qualification round at Nagoya General Gymnasium with an aggregate score of 12.916 that also included a bonus of 0.20.In her first vault — a Tsukahara back 360-degree turn with straight body — which had a difficulty value of 4.4, Pranati earned 8.600 for execution to score 13.000. She followed it up with a 4.0-difficulty vault — handspring pike forward somersault with half turn — scoring 8.433 for execution earning a total of 12.433.It was enough to scrape through to the final, which will also feature Uzbekistan’s 51-year-old Oksana Chusovitina after she qualified in fourth spot with an aggregate score of 13.266.The two-time Olympic medallist, who missed the 2006 and 2010 Asian Games while representing Germany, is competing in her seventh edition of the continental meet. When Chusovitina made her Asian Games debut in Hiroshima in 1994, several members of the 2026 field were not yet born.For Pranati’s coach Ashok Mishra, however, the result was significant for a simpler reason: she had achieved the target he had set before the competition.“It’s going to be a very difficult test for her. But I think she will do well,” Mishra had told TOI before the Games.Considering she was struggling with plantar fasciitis, much of Pranati’s recent training had also been about getting comfortable with the physical and psychological demands of the landing, with Mishra using soft-landing equipment and the foam pit before shifting her to the main landing area.Pranati, however, showed no signs of discomfort on Tuesday as she secured place in the final, although there was little separating her from the gymnasts immediately below her.As for South Korea’s Seojeong Yeo, she led the field with a score of 14.466 to qualify comfortably for the final. North Korea’s Chang Ok An was second on 13.900, while China’s DU Siyu secured the third qualifying spot with 13.433.For Pranati, who trains at Odisha AM/NS India Gymnastics High-Performance Centre in Bhubaneswar, the qualification provides an opportunity to put behind the disappointment of Glasgow, where a lack of speed in her approach disrupted her first vault and kept her out of the final.She will now return to the runway on Thursday with the chance to improve on Tuesday’s performance when the medals are decided.
