Indian women falter

Stuttgart, October 6

Indian women had a dismal outing at the World Artistic Gymnastic Championships as none of them could qualify for the finals of individual events. In the women’s all-round qualification, Pranati Nayak and Pranati Das finished 127th and 132nd after scoring 45.832 and 45.248 points, respectively.

In the vault event, Pranati Nayak scored 14.200 in her first attempt but got a neutral deduction in the second attempt, which ruled her out of the finals. She finished 27th in the vault qualification. In the uneven bars qualification, Pranati Nayak, Pranati Das and Aruna Reddy scored 10.566, 9.916 and 8.925 to finish 164th, 182nd and 193rd, respectively. In the balance beam qualification, the story was no different as Pranati Das (10.866), Aruna Reddy (10.200) and Pranati Nayak (9.933) signed off at 138th, 164th and 174th spots. In the floor exercise qualification, Pranati Das (11.466) and Pranati Nayak (11.133) ended at 151st and 179th positions, while Aruna Reddy did not finish.

Jaw-dropping moves

American gymnast Simone Biles led her team with her breathtaking moves in securing the top spot with a comfortable margin at the World Championships. On the second day of women’s qualification, Biles had a massive all-round qualifying score of 59.432, which was 2.266 points more than the second-best gymnast, her countrywoman Sunisa Lee. Biles topped in floor exercise and beam, was second in vault and stood seventh in uneven bars. Melanie de Jesus dos Santos of France was at the third spot with 56.782 points.

The two American stars helped the US (174.205) score 5.044 points more than China at the second spot and top qualify for Tuesday’s team final.

Biles stunned the audiences when she performed two original jaw-dropping moves. She first completed a triple-double move on the floor which involves a double backflip with three twists. And then she did a double-double dismount on beam, performing a double backflip with two twists. The moves are set to be named after her in the gymnastics code of points. However, it has to be officially announced by the sport’s governing body. — Agencies