Could Protistha Samanta have scored high with low-difficulty vaults in the final

4 min readMumbaiJul 27, 2026 11:20 PM IST India's Protistha Samanta competes on the floor exercise during the women's team final and individual qualification of Artistic Gymnastics at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. (AP)Protistha Samanta could not be faulted for how she performed in the CWG Artistic Gymnastics Vault final. On her two attempts with Difficulty values (D Score) of 4.4 and 4.0, the Indian finished with an average of 12.833. She had started 7th out of 8 gymnasts. She finished 7th, albeit Apparatus Finals tend to be scrutinised more than Qualification rounds by judges, and she scored lower than her Q score of 13.025. That incidentally was her career-best. So why was she never in medal contention?The gold went to Canadian sensation Lia Monica Fontaine. Avg score: 14.000. Lia’s