Gymnast Aruna is 1st Indian to win World Cup medal

History Created

Melbourne : Aruna Budda Reddy created history by becoming the first Indian gymnast to win an individual medal at the Gymnastics World Cup as she clinched a bronze in the women’s vault event. The 22-year-old, who hails from Hyderabad, scored 13.649 average points to win the bronze at the Hisense Arena here.

“Aruna is now the first and the only Indian to have won a medal in the World Cup and we are proud of her,” Shantikumar Singh, secretary of a faction of Gymnastics Federation of India, told PTI. Dipa Karmakar, who finished fourth in the 2016 Rio Olympics in women’s vault event, has won a bronze each in the Asian Championships and 2014 Commonwealth Games, but not at the level of a World Cup.

This was Aruna’s first international medal through she has taken part at the 2013 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, 2014 Commonwealth and 2014 Asian Games and 2017 Asian Championships. Her best international performance before Saturday’s feat was the sixth-place finish at the 2017 Asian Championships vault event.