Aruna Budda Reddy created history by becoming the first Indian to clinch a medal at the gymnastics World Cup when she took bronze in the women's vault event in Melbourne on Saturday.
Aruna registered a score of 13.369 points to finish behind Tjasa Kysslef of Slovenia and Emily Whitehead of Australia who finished with gold and silver, respectively.
WAG Vault Medal Ceremony #GymnasticsWorldCup #MelbWC18 #VisitVictoria #VisitMelbourne pic.twitter.com/Hozv3xcsHX
— World Cup Gymnastics (@gymworldcup) 24 February 2018
Kysslef had a score of 13.800, while Whitehead registered 13.699 in the finals.
Pranati Nayak, the second Indian in the fray, finished sixth with an aggregate score of 13.416 after two attempts.
Aruna began confidently in the finals, opting for a difficulty level of 4.600 where she scored 9.066 on execution, giving her a total of 13.666. On her second attempt, she chose a higher difficulty of 4.800 but managed an execution score of 8.833, giving her a total of 13.633.
Based on the aggregate of her two attempts, she got a final score of 13.649.
Aruna holds a black belt and is a former Karate trainer. She won her first National medal in 2005 which egged her on to pursue the sport further.
At the 2014 Commonwealth Games, she finished 14th in the qualification round of the Vault apparatus and secured a ninth place finish at the Asian Games held later that year.
Aruna had finished in sixth position on Vault at the 2017 Asian Championships.
Ashish Kumar was the first gymnast to put India on the world map when he won the country’s first-ever medal - a bronze at the 2010 Commonwealth Games.
Following this, at the Commonwealth Games four year later, Dipa Karmakar won a bronze medal in women’s vault becoming the first Indian female gymnast to win a medal. Dipa also became the first Indian gymnast to qualify for the Olympics when she took part in the 2016 Rio Olympics. She narrowly missed a podium finish getting fourth place.
(With IANS inputs)