Ready. Set. Stretch.

Vinayak Padmadeo

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AS Haryana’s Pravin Pathak, having completed his artistic solo routine in yoga, waited for the final results to be announced, he was congratulated by a team member for winning a medal. Pathak, who is pursuing a masters degree in yoga science and therapy from Guru Jambheshwar University, replied, “I am worried, Vaibhav is still to give his performance.”

Maharashtra’s Vaibhav, true to Pathak’s words, scored the highest points, 136.52, to win gold. Karnataka’s Aditya finished second with 134.71 points while Pathak took bronze with 133.55 points.

Yoga made its debut at the National Games and Pathak’s racing heartbeats were understandable. This was the biggest stage for players like him to perform. Besides, this was the first time the players were put up in 3-star hotels. They felt wanted because they were looked at like athletes of well-established sports.

Yoga as a sport is still fighting to be accepted by the average sports fan as a regular sport. There were hardly any spectators inside the Transtadia venue here. Those sitting near the platform were either team members, technical officials or family members who travelled with the athletes.

Pooja Patel, who won the first gold medal in traditional yoga, explained that fans do not really know yoga as a sport yet.

“For them, yoga would mean doing pranayama or surya namaskar. They do not know that it is a sport now and hundreds are competing for the medals for their states,” Pooja, who hails from Mehsana in Gujarat, said.

Big ambitions

Yoga may be new as a sport — its federation, National Yogasana Sports Federation (NYSF), was recognised only in 2019 — but officials have lofty ambitious for it. There are plans to pitch yoga as a demonstration sport at next year’s Asian Games in Hangzhou, China.

The federation is already using software to compute results, which are displayed on the big screens at the venue. Within a minute or so of a performance, the standings are available for all to see.

The refereeing works like clockwork, too. The technical officials (TO) were put through a rigorous two-month training programme in Sangamner, Maharashtra. Over 300 officials who had already done the Level-II referee course were invited for the new programme. Of them, only 46 officials who achieved the A+ grade were called to officiate at the National Games.

Vijay Shankar Tripathi is one such TO. He explained the nitty-gritty of scoring in the new sport.

“We have over 300 pages that we need to refer to, and there are three sets of judges,” Tripathi said. “The artistic judge looks at the full routine. Then there is a difficulty judge, who sees whether the athlete’s posture is accurate. Then we have a time judge, whose job is to see whether the routine had been conducted in time, as the routine needs to end in 150-180 seconds. There will be deductions if you finish before or after,” he added.

Much like gymnastics, yoga sport deducts penalty points if athletes fail to follow a sequence of asanas, which they must notify in advance. Not following the sequence would mean an automatic two-point penalty.

In artistic yogasana, athletes have to perform 10 asanas, chosen from a list of 250 prepared by NYSF. The athletes have to maintain the posture for a minimum of five seconds. If the costume does not match the theme of the routine, points are deducted. In addition, if the theme or music do not match the character portrayed by an athlete, more points could be deducted.

Competitors are judged on twisting body floor, twisting body balance, leg balance backward bend, single leg balance forward bend, hand balance forward bend, hand balance backward bend — all consisting of various asanas with varying difficulty levels.

Five competitions

Other than artistic solo yogasana, there are four different competitions, beginning with traditional yogasana. In artistic pairs, partners can use each other’s body to perform asanas. Then there is rhythmic pairs, in which the partners have to perform a routine in a synchronised manner without touching each other. Finally, in artistic group competition, five-member teams compete for the honours.

From the quarterfinals stage, the players get more points for performing asanas that have a higher difficulty quotient.

The sport is getting better and grander, and NYSF president Udit Seth said: “We are trying to bring out yoga from the ashrams to the arenas.”

However, some people do complain that the sport is losing its essence. “I agree that for yoga to get worldwide acceptance, we would need to do this song and dance routine… But at what cost? We should be careful and not lose yoga’s essence, which is wellness,” said a competitor who did not wish to be named.

There were some last-minute glitches at the event. The venue was changed from Mahatma Mandir to Transtadia because officials wanted a soundproof competition room and two fields of play. On Saturday, the competition was held on only one stage, which forced the organisers to extend the competition to six days. “If we had two mats, we would have been able to end the competition in three days. It is OK, we are managing well,” competition manager CP Purohit, who is also Rajasthan Yogasana Sports Association president, said.

Glitches and objections notwithstanding, the sport seems set to get better and bigger.