Pranati Nayak is an Indian artistic gymnast. She earned a bronze medal in the Asian Artistic Gymnastics Championships organised at Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia in 2019. She was named for representing India in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics Games. In 2012, she started playing at the Senior International Elite level in artistic gymnastics.
Contents
Wiki/Biography
Pranati Nayak was born on Thursday, 6 April 1995 (age 26 years; as of 2021) in Jhargam, West Bengal, India. Her zodiac sign is Aries.
Physical Appearance
Height (approx.): 4’ 9”
Weight (approx.): 47 kg
Hair Colour: Black
Eye Colour: Black
Family
Parents & Siblings
Her father’s name is Sumanta Nayak, and he is a bus driver. Her mother’s name is not known.
She has two sisters named Jayati and Tapti.
Career
Pranati Nayak, along with Dipa Karmakar, played the Children’s Asiad in Russia in 2014. They mutually scored 4th on Beam & 5th on vault at the All-Around finals of this Asiad. In artistic gymnastics, Pranati is counted on the third position after India’s renowned gymnasts, Dipa Karmakar and Aruna Reddy, for winning the medal in the World Championships. In 2020, Pranati Nayak, along with Milka Gehani from Sri Lanka, attained the continental quota spot for the 2020 Summer Olympics. She received this quota in artistic gymnastics after the cancellation of the 2021 Asian Championships. In 2021, she was selected to participate in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics Games as an artistic gymnast. In 2023, Pranati participated in the Asian Games, held in Hangzhou, China. At the event, she qualified for the finals in both the vault and all-around gymnastics competitions. In the semi-finals of the women’s vault, she secured the sixth position with a score of 12.716 points, becoming one of the eight qualifiers for the finals. Moreover, despite being ranked 23rd overall in the all-around competition, Pranati qualified for the finals because the rules stipulated that a country could have a maximum of only two gymnasts in the final round. [1]The Times of India
Medal
In 2019, in Asian Championships, she won a Bronze medal – third place at Ulaanbaatar in Vault.
Facts/Trivia
- Pranati Nayak follows a non-vegetarian diet. [2]The Times of India
- In her leisure time, Pranati Nayak adores dancing and listening to music.
- At the age of seven, Pranati opted for gymnastics as a sport in school thinking that it was yoga.
- At the age of nine, Pranati began practising artistic gymnastics officially. After completing her schooling, Pranati went to Kolkata and officially started playing gymnastics on Minara Begum’s recommendations.
- Pranati’s national coach is Lakhan Sharma, and her personal coach is Minara Begum.
- Pranati Nayak also works for Chittaranjan Locomotive Works that works under Indian Railways (Kolkata, India) along with playing gymnast internationally.
- In 2019, Pranati Nayak won the World Championship. On winning this event, Pranati said in an interview that it was a big day for her, and she wanted to make her father’s life easy. She further added that her father was a bus driver, and she wanted to help her father financially. She explained her situation,
It’s a big day for me because I knew I had it in me to win medals internationally. But everything I do is for my parents. They’ve not had an easy life, and I want to ensure my father gets comfortable. He’s driven a bus for many years and now I want life to be a little easy for him. My parents don’t have a son, but I told them I was enough to take care of them.”
- According to Pranati, her personal coach ‘Minara Begum’ helped her a lot in building her artistic gymnastic career. In an interview, she said,
My parents couldn’t have afforded my sports career, Minara ma’am took care of my stay, food, other expenses to pocket money when I saw that’s what teenagers got.”
- In an interview, Pranati’s personal coach, Minara Begum, expressed the dedication of Pranati in gymnastics. She said that Pranati never refused training even at the age of 6 to 7. She spelt out,
She never refused a workout and always wanted to practice.”
- A video showing Pranati Nayak’s practising moves artistic gymnastics.
- In a conversation with a media house, Pranati’s father explained the childhood memories of Pranati. He said that he was able only to arrange the hostel facility for Pranati, but she also needed a healthy and good diet after getting selected for the Tokyo Olympics. He further added that he always wanted a male child after three daughters but Pranati showed so much talent that she was going beyond any male child. He said,
I thank the state government of West Bengal and the training centre of Kolkata where Pranati was enrolled for practising gymnast for helping Pranati. I’ll be honest. After three daughters, I felt a little bad about not having a son. But Pranati showed so much talent that I knew she is going to go further than any male child I might’ve had. I was convinced she was special.”
- According to Pranati, amid the COVID-19 lockdown in India, she tried to keep herself in shape by regularly working out and not skipping her gymnastic training and practice. In an interview, she said that her father made suitable homemade practice equipment for her to exercise gymnastics daily. She described,
My father would fix a bamboo horizontally across two trees – for me to do the simple swings that were part of her weakest apparatus – the uneven bars.”
She further added that her national coach ‘Lakhan Sharma’ was regularly guiding her in practising gymnastics during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in India. She stated,
Somewhere, I think, that hard work paid off. Even now with everything closed, Lakhan sir ensures I get training.”
- According to Pranati, Dipa Karmakar was the first person whom she called when Pranati got selected for the Tokyo Olympics in 2020. Dipa Karmakar represented India in gymnastics in the 2016 Rio Olympics. Pranati further stated that she often calls Dipa for regular tips to perform better in gymnastics. She said,
I admire her (Dipa). She has achieved a lot for the country. I also want to do the same. My father also gives me the example of Dipa didi and says – ”you will have to go to the Olympics just like Dipa.”
References
↑1 | The Times of India |
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↑2 | The Times of India |