Indians all the way at the Mallakhamb World Championship

Himani Parab performs pole mallakhamb at Shivaji Park yesterday. Pics/Ashish Raje

It was a neck-and-neck fight between two Indian girls, Himani Parab (Mumbai) and Pratiksha More (Satara) at Shivaji Park yesterday. But Parab eventually enjoyed the upper hand by securing 74.70 points as compared to More's 74.40 for gold in the women's individual championship (pole and rope combined) at the first Mallakhamb World Championship. Japan's Keiko Takemoto took home the bronze medal with 53.10 points.

Parab, who also won two gold medals in the individual short set and long set rope categories, revealed how she overcame More in the deciding round of the overall championship: "We were equal on points before the final round and the pressure was very high. But I gave it my best in the final rope performance and that's what made the difference."

Deepak Shinde on top
A similar tussle was witnessed between two other Indians for the men's individual overall championship between Deepak Shinde and Sagar Ovhalkar, both from Mumbai. Shinde won gold with 84.30 points while Ovhalkar's silver came about with 83.70 points. Germany's Sebastian Krimmer (36.81 points) won bronze.

The Indian women's team with the championship trophy yesterday

"Today's performance was not up to my expectations, hence I missed out on gold in the individual championship," said Ovhalkar, who clinched two gold medals in the short and long set of the pole category and another gold in long set of rope mallakhamb. He was rewarded with the Shiv Chhatrapati award later in the evening.

The Indian men's team missed a gold medal in the team championship as no other country fulfilled the criteria of having a team of minimum four players. "Other than the individual category, overseas countries need to give importance on building their teams. Only then we will have real competition at the next World Championship," said Indian men's team coach Sunil Gangawane.

Singapore girls win silver
In the women's team championship, India's team comprising Parab, More, Pooja Malviya, Kethziyal, Janabai Patil and Ritu Prajapati dominated the proceedings by winning gold with a combined points tally of 244.73 (pole and rope). The Singapore girls had to be content with a silver medal (44.45) points while Malaysia earned bronze by securing 30.22 points.

Since this was the first time that Indian women players experienced the challenge of pole mallakhamb at a competitive level, the hosts had to be satisfied with a bronze. Japanese professional pole dancer Keiko Takemoto and Italy's circus artist Delia Ceruti outclassed their Indian opponents by clinching gold and silver respectively in both short set and long set of the pole category.

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