Gymnast Pranati Nayak wins quota for Tokyo Games

Pranati Nayak

Pranati Nayak, the Asian Championships bronze-medallist in vault, earned a quota to compete at next month's Tokyo Olympics, the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) officially announced on Monday.

Pranati got a quota place through reallocation since the Asian Championships, scheduled to be held in Tokyo in May, was cancelled due to Covid-19 pandemic.

"We have got official confirmation from the International governing body in gymnastics on Monday evening that Pranati has been reallocated continental quota place to compete at the Olympics," Pranati's coach Lakhan Sharma told IANS from Kolkata.

On May 1, IANS had reported that Pranati will be reallocated continental quota by the FIG to compete in Olympics on the basis of her performance in the 2019 Asian Championships as several Olympic qualification competitions were cancelled or postponed due to the pandemic.

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The 26-year-old gymnast from Kolkata had won bronze in vault at the 2019 Asian Championships held in Mongolia. "Pranati was reallocated continental quota place as she had won bronze in the 2019 Asian Championships. Competitions in 2020 were disrupted by the pandemic," added Sharma. Since the quota is by name (nominative), it can't be changed.

According to an official of Gymnastics Federation of India (GFI), since the Asian Championships scheduled to be held in the last week of May in Tokyo was cancelled due to pandemic, the unused continental quotas were reallocated to the eligible athlete from the Asian zone only.

"Since the Asian Gymnastics Championships, which was an Olympic qualification event, was cancelled due to the pandemic, the performance of 2019 Asian Championships held in Mongolia was taken into account for the quotas. As per rules, Sri Lanka's Elpitiya Badalge, Dona Milka Gehani and Pranati were given continental quotas," said an official of the GFI.

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