Dipa Karmakar scripted history by becoming the first Indian gymnast to enter the Olympic finals.
Indian Gymnast Dipa Karmakar, 22, created history by becoming the first Indian gymnast to enter the Olympic finals at the Rio Olympic Centre, Brazil.
She qualified for the final round in the individual vault final of artistic gymnastics after finishing eighth on the standings on Sunday (7th August, 2016).
Competing in the third sub-division, the Tripura gymnast scored had an average score of 51.665. She managed to perform her much-vaunted ‘Produnova’ vault in her first attempt to score 14.850 on the vault, 11.666 on the uneven bars 12.866 in balance beam and 12.033 in floor exercises.
In uneven bars, Deepa scored 7.166 for execution and 4.5 for difficulty. In balance beam, she scored 7.566 for execution and 5.3 for difficulty, while in floor exercises her scores read 7.133 for execution and 5.2 for difficulty with a penalty of 0.3.
By time she finished, Deepa was sixth in vaults and 27th overall and had to endure a nervous wait of five hours for the other two sub-divisions to finish. However, with no other competitor managing to surpass her score in individual vault, Dipa managed to enter individual vault final and grab a piece of history. The top eight qualify for the final.
The Russian duo of Seda Tutkhalian (58.207 overall) and Aliya Mustafina (58.098 overall) finished second and third respectively on the overall standings. The eight gymnasts with the highest individual scores in each apparatus move on to compete for an individual event title in that apparatus. The 24 men and 24 women with the highest combined individual totals move on to the all-around finals.
Dipa, is also the first Indian woman gymnast to win a Commonwealth Games medal. Additionally, she is also the first Indian gymnast to qualify for the Olympics in 52 years. Deepa will compete in the finals on August 14. We wish her all the Best!!!
by Ashwani Srivastva