Gymnasts to launch the medal hunt tomorrow

Pune: Commonwealth Games participant Meghna Reddy of Telengana, and Allahabad’s Mohammad Anas are the stellar draws among the 166 gymnasts in the Khelo India Youth Games (KIYG) 2019 that get under way at the  Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex here from Wednesday.

Reddy drew plaudits for her performance in the artistic gymnastics event of the Gold Coast Games in Australia last year, while Anas won a bagful of medals at the Khelo India School Games 2018 (KISG)
Expectedly, hosts Maharashtra have fielded the largest contingent with 39 gymnasts among the 17 participating states. West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Tripura have sent 21, 18 and 16 respectively with the remaining 13 states completing the numbers.

Tuesday will see the first two gold medals of the Games being decided with the U-21 men’s and women’s artistic gymnastics finals. Events are scheduled to begin at 10 am, and competition will continue through the day.

Gymnastics will be one of the feature events of the Games especially given the success of Ashish Kumar and Dipa Karmakar on the international stage and the interest spawned in the sport thereafter.

With Aruna Reddy of Telengana joining the list of international medal winners at the Gymnastics World Cup in Melbourne last year, the sport is bound to be watched closely as India looks for more honours at the Asian, Commonwealth, World and at the Olympic level.

In all, some 6,000 participants are expected at KIYG 2019 that officially get under way on Wednesday.