Harschit Damodaran and Akshat Bajaj lead India to vault gold-silver double at Junior Asian Championships

After the Indian men’s junior artistic gymnastics team scripted history by winning a bronze in the team event at 2026 Asian Championships in Zunyi, China, on Friday, Harschit Damodaran of Uttar Pradesh and Delhi’s Akshat Bajaj added to the celebrations by claiming gold and silver respectively in the junior men’s vault final on Sunday.Damodaran’s gold-medal-winning effort was built on a handspring front double twist and a Tsukahara 720. The two vaults earned scores of 13.866 and 13.433 respectively, with the Indian gymnast impressing judges through his clean execution to finish with an average score of 13.649.Akshat Bajaj secured the silver with a score of 13.433 after registering vault scores of 13.500 and 13.366. He performed the Tsukahara 720 and the Yurchenko 720.

The bronze medal went to Bekzad Bakhtiyarov of Uzbekistan, who finished with a score of 13.283 after scoring 13.333 and 13.233 on his two vaults.The double podium finish expectedly delighted national coach Rakesh Patra.“Indian gymnastics is showing visible improvement, and I believe we will continue to make significant progress in the coming years,” said Patra, a former gymnast who competed internationally for more than a decade.

Damodaran has enjoyed a breakthrough season, having impressed at the national championships before carrying that form onto the continental stage. He had topped qualification in the vault event and also qualified seventh for the floor exercise final, underlining his all-round potential.“I worked closely with the personal coaches in Bhubaneswar, including Praveen Sharma, who coaches Akshat, and Raja Babu Yadav, who coaches Harschit,” said Patra.

“I monitored the overall training programme and planning, which they followed diligently. It is because of this teamwork that we were able to win the medal.”The former gymnast, who represented India at five World Championships, three Asian Games and three Commonwealth Games before taking over as national coach, however, believes that as the gymnasts transition to the senior ranks now, they will need to increase the difficulty of their routines, particularly on vault.“To compete consistently at the highest level, they will have to perform vaults with difficulty values of 5.2 or 5.6,” added the coach, who himself was a still-rings specialist.They will no doubt aim for it in the years to come, but for now the young gymnasts can savour a memorable double success — a feat that Indian gymnastics does not witness too often.