After 2 years I got a chance to play at the Asian Championship again. This time it was held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from April 30 to May 2. That is less than a month after the Commonwealth Games.
After the closing ceremony at the CWG, I flew back immediately to Greece along with Varvara since my tickets were booked back to Greece. But I couldn’t stay there. After staying for so long away from home and with everything that happened at the CWG I was just not mentally strong enough to go back to Greece. So I flew back to home by 19th of April 2018 and completed the formalities back in India to participate in Asian Championships. That meant I had only 9 days before I had to leave for Malaysia again. Now those 9 days I was training alone cause Varvara could not be here in Hyderabad, which meant that I would only be seeing her again when I landed in Malaysia. My parents made sure to book the flight tickets in such a way that me and varvara reached Malaysia at the same time on the 27th of April 2018. We had the podium training on the 29th so 28th I took a day off .
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| Meghana Reddy Gundlapally at Asian Championships 2018 |
The podium training . This is the last training before the competition and the most important one since we would be practicing in the arena of the actual competition . Varvara was a little worried about how I would do my routines since she had not seen me in over a week , so we trained behind the curtains until the very last moment . Not to say after we finished the podium training she was really shocked to see my performance, and I mean that in a good way.
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| Meghana Reddy Gundlapally - Practicing at Asian Championships 2018 |
Hans Zimmer. I don’t remember exactly where I read it but it said that listening to those tracks would really help with your concentration, and once I tried it, it kinda just stuck with me. By the time we got to the stadium we found out that the competition was running almost an hour late so we decided to sit outside near a coffee shop .
It was the usual preparations that I always do but this time there was this feeling . Like a feeling of calmness. even just before going on to the carpet or after getting in to my start pose I was not worried or nervous. I was just calm. I don’t know if it was that I just didn’t worry if I made any mistakes or if it was the experience of playing at a big platform like the CWG that gave me a new confidence that I didn’t realise, but I was just there not worrying about anything and it kinda felt good. I know it sounds a little cheesy but that feeling gave me a new energy. I didn’t realise it then but as I am writing this now I understand that the calmness actually help me perform much better .
After a long couple of months and to be honest quiet a few terrible competitions I just needed a break, and these Asian Championships were just that. This was the only competition in my life that I had performed without any falls. I wouldn’t say they were clean routines cause there were mistakes, but at least there were no falls , and that was a stepping stone that helped me grow not only as a gymnast but also helped in understanding my potential in this sport.
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| Flying in Malaysia |
I thought that I wanted stop the sport after CWG. You know how they say that everything is in the mind well me wanting to stop was also the same. It was just a feeling in my mind that i couldn't do it, but that was just not true. My mom joined me in shooting once I got back home, but I just couldn’t do it. I went to the shooting range for a few days before I realized that no matter how hard it gets or how many problems there are I will always go back to rhythmic gymnastics.
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| Team India @ 2018 Asian Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships |
