Moving up an age category is where most young athletes stall. You spend a season getting comfortable, then the field gets older, stronger and more practised, and the results you were used to stop arriving.
Ruddrakash Khanna went up to the junior category and made an Asian final at the first attempt.
The Jammu gymnast finished seventh in the Junior Men's Individual event at the 10th Asian Aerobic Gymnastics Championship in the Philippines — reaching the final on what was his debut outing in the category. Seventh in Asia does not come with a medal, and it is a considerably better result than the number suggests for someone competing at that level for the first time.
He earned the India place the hard way, finishing second in the national selection trials at Imphal.
Where he trains
Khanna is a trainee of the J&K Sports Council Gymnastics Academy — the same Jammu setup that has produced more than 32 international athletes and over 750 medals at national-level competition. He is coached by S. P. Singh, a former India team coach, and has had sponsorship support from IREDA.
This is not his first international. He holds the J&K Government Award in Gymnastics (2025) and has previously represented India at the Youth Asian Championship and the Suzuki World Cup.
Aerobic gymnastics is not a sport that gets much airtime here, which is part of why the pathway is worth spelling out. There is no mystery to it: a local academy, national selection trials, and a place in the India squad for whoever finishes high enough. Khanna went through that sequence this year and came out the other side in an Asian final.
For anyone in Jammu wondering where that door is, the J&K Sports Council runs academies across a range of disciplines — including the nine free Academies of Excellence at Khel Gaon, which are open on talent rather than fees.
Aerobic gymnastics rewards something slightly different from the artistic gymnastics most people picture: routines are built on continuous high-intensity movement, and judges score difficulty, execution and artistry across a short, relentless floor exercise. It is unforgiving of a single lapse in a way that suits athletes who train obsessively and punishes those who do not.
The championship dates were not announced in the reporting we could find, and there is no published schedule yet for his next outing. What is on the record is a seventh place in Asia, in a harder category, at the first time of asking — and a Jammu academy that keeps turning up in the results.
Sources
Greater Kashmir — J&K gymnast Ruddrakash Khanna finishes 7th at Asian championship
Daily Excelsior — Ruddrakash selected for Asian Aerobic Gymnastics C'ship (Imphal trials, academy, coach, previous representation)
