How Pranati Nayak prepared for Tokyo 2020 in 60 days!

Gymnast Pranati Nayak had her best part of training in the last two months after surprisingly securing a berth for Tokyo 2020 via continental quota.

The Pingla-born gymnast dealt with major challenges after returning to proper training after a year as she didn't have access to all the required equipment during lockdown and focused only on maintaining her physical fitness. In fact, when Nayak secured the continental quota for Tokyo 2020, there was just a little over 80 days for the Olympics and that left her in a difficult position.

"We were training but didn't have the same access at an ordinary club. We have trained during lockdown since December to keep ourselves physically prepared," her coach Lakhan Manohar Sharma told Olympics.com.

"But when we returned, there was a bit of a problem for us, because starting from the apparatus and all was difficult after returning," he added.

But her coach, Sharma, ensured that Nayak returned to her best ahead of the Games. The major challenge for him was to make sure that he didn't risk the 26-year-old to injury during the training.

Sharma would, thus, stand close to the landing area to give Nayak support before she lands and make sure she perfects her vaults after repeated efforts. And though the results started to show, her coach admitted that her vaults are still not up to the mark.

"The vaults are coming gradually but the gymnasts themselves are very important. So we are not taking much risk because she has to participate (at events) even after the Olympics," he said.

"But we have recovered well in time and are trying to perform best (at Tokyo 2020)," Sharma, an assistant gymnastic coach at Sports Authority of India (SAI), added.

"The score Pranati had at international level we want to better that at Tokyo 2020. That is our realistic dream. We want to qualify for the final because for the competition we need a lot of preparation. And we have done well for (only) two months," he mentioned.

The 2019 Asian Championships bronze medallist will rely on her forte of -- 'twisting' -- to earn crucial points in her vaults. Sharma had further helped her execute it better by making it look more artistic.

"Both the vaults that we perform are through twisting. It is easier and the chances of injuries are also less," Sharma said.

"Suppose, she needs to perform a movement in a competition. If the difficulty of the movement is 0.40, and she has some faults like bent legs or her degree is not up to the mark, then a lot of points get deducted.

"It is important that it looks more artistic. And I worked on that part and as a result the deduction of points started to reduce," he said.

The result of his work began to show as Nayak scored 14.200 in vault at the 2019 World Championships, where she also missed out on the direct berth to Tokyo 2020, after missing out on the cut-off mark by less than three points.

"I tried to work on that (execution) initially. I told her about it and thought we can save crucial points by working on it. Then her score at the (2019) World Championship came out well just due to that," Sharma recalled.

And regardless of the result that Nayak produces at Tokyo 2020, for Sharma, she will be his favourite trainee due to her drive towards her goals.

When does Pranati Nayak's Tokyo 2020 campaign start?

Nayak will be first seen in action at Tokyo 2020 on July 25, Sunday, in the women's artistic gymnastic qualification event.