16 years old Ananya Garikipati celebrated her 16th birthday victoriously in the mecca of gymnastics. She won one gold and one silver medal and three special prizes during the two-week long competitions in Moscow in the third and fourth week of May. Its quite an historical moment as Ananya’s achievements has raised the Indian flag in Moscow and she has become the first Indian Rhythmic gymnast to win these medals in Moscow so far.
Ananya bagged the all-round gold medal and a special prize in the Junior Star Rhythmic Gymnastics Championship. She won the all-round silver medal and Miss Championship title in the Salut Cup. She also won the special prizes for excellent routines and brilliant apparatus handling from the organisers and sponsors at the world’s best rhythmic gymnastics of Irina Viner Usmanova in Moscow. And quite uniquely it is the only special prize given in the entire tournament for being brave to compete against world’s best rhythmic gymnasts.
“The best thing about our trip is that Ananya turned 16 during one of the tournaments. Initially, she was not happy about competing on her birthday but it turned out to be the sweetest 16th birthday. To receive a special prize on her birthday made it the most memorable,’ said her mother Dr Padmaja, as per reports of TOI.
“The training is extremely hard but fruitful at the end. She is really blessed to be trained by an extremely humble Olympic champion,” her mother said.
Ananya is a Grade XI student and is on a Sports Scholarship at the Ganges Valley School. When Ananya is in Moscow she is trained by the 2008 Olympic Champion Anna Gavrilenko.
“Ananya was praised for her artistry (beauty and elegance in her routines). The impressed Olympic champion had asked Ananya who made her routines. Ananya said she did them on her own as she didn’t have a rhythmic coach in India. This took the Russian by surprised as the gymnasts take the help of their coaches and choreographers to compose the routines. I am thrilled to bits as Ananya has such a creative streak in her,” Padmaja added.
