Aruna is the toast of Indian gymnasts

Melbourne: Aruna Budda Reddy made history by becoming the first Indian gymnast to win an individual medal at the Gymnastics World Cup as she clinched a bronze in the women's vault event here on Saturday.

The 22-year-old Reddy, who hails from Hyderabad, scored 13.649 average points to win the bronze at the Hisense Arena. Tjasa Kysslef of Slovania won the gold with a score of 13.800 while Emily Whitehead of Australia took the silver with 13.699.

Another Indian in the final round, Pranati Nayak finished sixth with a score of 13.416. The sport of gymnastics has a series of World Cup events in a year and they are second in importance after the World Championships.

"Aruna is now the first and the only Indian to have won a medal in the World Cup and we are proud of her," Shantikumar Singh, secretary of a faction of Gymnastics Federation of India, said.

This was the third gymnastics medal for India at the world level. Dipa Karmakar, who finished fourth in the 2016 Rio Olympics in women's vault event, has won a bronze each in the Asian Championships and 2014 Commonwealth Games but not at the level of a World Cup.

This was Aruna's first international medal through she has taken part at the 2013 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, 2014 Commonwealth Games and 2014 Asian Games and the 2017 Asian Championships.

Aruna had a good start in the final, scoring 9.066 points on execution after choosing a difficulty level of 4.600, which gave her a total of 13.666. She chose a higher difficulty level of 4.800 in her second attempt, but could score only 8.833 on execution, which gave her a total of 13.633 points.
The aggregate of her two attempts were then taken, which gave her a final score of 13.649 points.
Her best international performance before Saturday's feat was a sixth place finish at the 2017 Asian Championships vault event. In all the other international events, she could not go beyond the qualification stage.

In other events, Rakesh Patra finished fourth in the men's rings event. He is still in the fray for the final round of the parallel bars on Sunday.

The 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games and 2-14 Asian Games bronze medallist Ashish Kumar will also feature in the men's vault event final round on Sunday after he finished sixth in the qualifying round.

Sixteen countries are featuring in the World Cup series event this year across two days of qualification with the top eight teams athletes on each apparatus heading to the finals.

A protégé of Brij Kishore (who is undergoing treatment for the past fortnight) at Lal Bahadur Indoor Stadium back home, Aruna’s dreams soared high when Ethic Sports Foundation rose to the occasion with a timely financial assistance.

According to the Foundation Managing Director Kailashnath Yadav, this was a momentous day for everyone associated with the sport as Aruna (who holds a black belt in karate) had realised he dreams and aspirations of millions of Indians with her exploits.

The Foundation agreed to sponsor her the moment they noticed tremendous talent in her. ‘She is all grace and poise,’ he said.

Recounting her financial problems, K Maheshwar, Secretary of Gymnastics Association of Telangana, said the promising girl had to survive many hiccups that cropped up. He said that with her morale on a high, she would be the gymnast to beat in April’s Commonwealth Games Down Under.

Meanwhile, a grand felicitation awaits her on arrival by the Foundation.­