Pranati Nayak was sixth in the women’s vault final at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games 2026, two places higher than her eighth place finish at the Hangzhou Asian Games 2023. The 31-year-old Tokyo Olympian scored 13.100 at the Rainbow Hall of Nagoya City General Gymnasium.
Pranati was India’s only gymnast in the Games and delivered a consistently good performance in the final. She got identical 12.900 on both the vault attempts. She received a difficulty score of 4.4 and an execution score of 8.500 on each attempt with a 0.20 bonus added to her score.
This was another great performance for Pranati at the Asian Games. Despite missing out on a medal, her sixth-place finish was a success compared with Hangzhou, when she scored 12.350 to finish eighth in the same event.
Pranati had entered the eight-gymnast final after finishing seventh in the qualification round. In Tuesday’s qualification she received 13.000 points on her first vault and 12.433 on her second for an overall 12.916 score, which was enough to secure her place in the medal round.
The Indian gymnast maintained her composure in the final against a strong field which also included world class competitors, with Yeo Seo-jeong of Republic of Korea taking the gold medal as the Tokyo bronze medallist. An Chang-ok of Democratic People’s Republic of Korea took silver and China’s Du Siyu won the bronze medal.
Pranati’s performance was especially notable after she returned to competition following a leg injury. A couple of weeks earlier, the gymnast had also faced disappointment at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow earlier this year, failing to make it into the vault final.
Pranati had a good performance despite not winning a podium finish in Nagoya but achieved a good result compared to her previous Asian Games performance. Her improved ranking and score showed her reliability in one of gymnastics' most demanding apparatus events.
Pranati is a three-time Asian Championships bronze medallist on vault and is among India’s top gymnasts. She represented India at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and has since then competed at global and continental events.
Her sixth-place finish also extended India’s presence in the gymnastics competition at the Asian Games, although the country still waits for another medal in the sport. India’s only Asian Games gymnastics medal still remains Ashish Kumar’s bronze in the floor exercise at the 2010 Guangzhou Games.
Pranati has once again proved her ability to compete at the top level in her latest performance. The podium was not reached in Nagoya, but her sixth-place result was a step up from Hangzhou and adds another chapter to the career of one of India’s top vaulters.
