Revision as of 13:41, 16 March 2018

At the Olympics: 1947-2016

The Times of India, April 18, 2016

Between 1947 and 2016, 11 Indian male gymnasts have taken part in the Olympics (two in 1952, three in 1956 and six in 1964).

The sport of gymnastics has been in turmoil in the country in the 21st century with rival factions holding elections and claiming to be the national federation. Even the camps for the gymnasts has been held under the aegis of Sports Authority of India.

FIG licence

Ashish competed at 2006 CWG, 2009 World without FIG licence

Sabi Hussain, ‘Competed in 2006 CWG without FIG licence’, March 15, 2018: The Times of India

Gymnast Ashish Kumar’s Claim Questions Decision To Drop Other Top Contenders From CWG Squad

India’s leading gymnast, Ashish Kumar, has blown the lid off the selection drama surrounding the Indian gymnastics contingent for the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games next month. Ashish, who won India’s first-ever gymnastics medals at the 2010 Delhi CWG, claimed on Wednesday that he had competed at the 2006 Melbourne CWG and 2009 World Championships without the mandatory ‘FIG licence’ – an identification card issued by the sport’s world governing body, FIG, to all gymnasts in order to participate in international competitions.

Ashish’s revelation has come in the light of the Gymnastics Federation of India (GFI) and Indian Olympic Association’s (IOA) recent claims that Mohammad Bobby and Gaurav Kumar were denied a spot in the gymnastics contingent because they didn’t possess a valid FIG licence.

Ashish’s revelation seems to have called their bluff as the Allahabadborn gymnast further revealed that if the federation (GFI) is willing, processing of licence doesn’t necessarily take a month. “I got it in a few days. Don’t exactly know the technicalities but it all depends on the federation. If they really want, they can always get it done (from the FIG) early,” Ashish told TOI.

“I competed at the Melbourne CWG without the licence. It was my first CWG and I was very young at that time. It was only after the 2009 Worlds that I got my licence,” informed Ashish.

GFI and IOA’s problems could further be compounded as BJP’s Member of Parliament from Agra, Ram Shankar Katheria, and the Department of scheduled caste and scheduled tribes welfare under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment have written to sports minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, citing the injustice meted out to Bobby and Gaurav.

Katheria, who is the chairman of the national commission for scheduled castes, has urged Rathore to immediately take up the matter with the concerned authorities to ensure that the names of two gymnasts, Bobby and Gaurav, are included in the final CWG squad. Bobby and Gaurav, who are employed with the Indian Navy, hail from poor families in Uttar Pradesh. Bobby’s father, who died last year, was a labourer, while Gaurav’s father works in a shoe manufacturing unit in Agra. This would have been their maiden CWG appearance.

GFI and IOA officials had contended that since it would take at least a month for Bobby and Gaurav to get their licenses, their names were replaced by Rakesh Patra and Yogeshwar Singh. It’s the selection of Yogeshwar which has led to heartburn.

The results of trials, in possession of TOI, show that Ashish finished first, followed by Bobby and Gaurav. Aditya Singh Rana and Arik Dey occupied the fourth and fifth positions respectively, while Yogeshwar finished sixth.

As the selection trails were held from February 12 to 14, the federation and IOA had enough time to get their licenses made if the one-month yardstick was to be applied.

“How could a gymnast finishing sixth (total 73.45 points) be named for the CWG? I (with 75.85 points) and Gaurav (75.30 points) were well ahead of Yogeshwar on points. Patra, who only competed in three out of the six artistic rounds totaling just 40.60 points, was also included. This is cheating,” said a disheartened Bobby.

“If the GFI and IOA are saying we don’t have the licence and it can’t be made, then they should have named Arik in the squad. He finished fifth

(73.75 points) and has the valid licence (till May 2019),” he added.

When TOI contacted GFI official Deepak Kabra, he justified the team selection. “The rankings don’t reflect the right picture. The selection panel should have ranked the gymnasts based on their performance in every individual round rather than ranking them on overall performance. Bobby and Gaurav can’t go because of licence issue. Moreover, it’s the IOA which finalises the contingent.”

2015

6th Senior ART Gymnastics Asian Championships

Medal winners

The Times of India, Aug 04 2015

Dipa Karmakar clinched the women's vault bronze medal. Dipa, who won a bronze in the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, stood third at the podium with 14.725 points.

2018

Gymnastics World Cup

February 24, 2018: The Times of India

HIGHLIGHTS

Reddy scored 13.649

Reddy is a former black belt and Karate trainer

In 2005, Reddy won her first National medal which convinced her to take up the sport

Aruna Budda Reddy became the first Indian gymnast to clinch an individual medal at the Gymnastics World Cup in Melbourne by securing bronze in the women's vault. Reddy, 22, scored 13.649 to finish behind gold medallist Tjasa Kysslef of Slovania and Emily Whitehead of Australia who took silver. The other Indian woman in contention, Pranati Nayak finished sixth with a score of 13.416.

Reddy is a former black belt and Karate trainer. In 2005, Reddy won her first National medal which convinced her to take up the sport. Reddy finished 14th at the qualification round of the Vault apparatus at the 2014 Commonwealth Games and went one up with a ninth-place finish at the Asian Games. Also, at the 2017 Asian Championships, Aruna finished on 6th position on Vault.

Aruna will also contest in the final round of the floor event on Sunday. 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.

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.

Indian gymnastics was put on the map when Ashish Kumar gave the country its first-ever gymnastics medal by winning a bronze at the 2010 Commonwealth Games. Then six years later at the 2016 Rio Olympics, Dipa Karmakar became the first Indian gymnast to qualify for Olympics in 52 years, where she narrolky missed out on a bronze medal.