Dipa Karmakar has memorable Olympics debut
Rio de Janeiro: Indian gymnast Dipa Karmakar scripted history as she became the first Indian to make the cut for the individual vault finals in her debut Olympic Games after finishing 8th in the qualifying round here.
The Tripura-girl, who is the country’s first woman gymnast to qualify for the Olympics, managed to perform her much-appreciated ‘Produnova’ vault cleanly to secure 14.850 points after two attempts.
It was a nervous wait for the Indian after that. She had ended sixth after the third of five sub-divisions.
She dropped to 8th eventually when Canadian Shallon Olsen’s terrific effort of 14.950 rejigged the overall standings.
But that was just about enough to secure her a place in the finals scheduled for August 14 as the top-8 made the cut for the medal round.
“I’m happy but wish I could have done a bit better. In practice, I perform way better than this,” Dipa said.
Dipa secured 7.000 on difficulty and 8.1 on execution in her first attempt. Her score for difficulty was a tad lower at 6.000 in the second attempt.
She landed low on her Produnova vault in the first attempt, while her second vault was a ‘Tsuk double full twist’ with step to the side.
In the other routines, Dipa secured 11.666 for her effort on the uneven bars, scoring low on difficulty but decent on execution. Later, Dipa scored 12.866 for her performance on the balance beam.
The floor exercise fetched Dipa a score of 12.033, which also included a 0.300 penalty.
