Dipa Karmakar on Sunday created history by becoming the first Indian woman gymnast ever to qualify for the Olympics with a strong show at the final qualifying event for the games.
Karmakar garnered a total score of 52.698 points in her performance at the Final Qualifier and Olympic Test Event in Rio de Janeiro. She finished ninth in the first of the four subdivisions of the women’s artistic category.
Her first vault, the difficult Produnova, gave Dipa 15.066 points, the highest among the 14 competitors. Just to get an idea of how tough that is, check out the video of her performing it in 2015:
But a poor show in the uneven bars took her points down as she collected 11.700, the second from the bottom among the 14 participants. The Tripura girl secured 13.366 and 12.566 points in beam and floor exercises.
The 22-year-old could not clinch an Olympic berth in the World Championships in November last as she finished fifth.
She had originally put as second reserve for the ongoing Olympic Test event in Rio, but was informed last month that she had sneaked into the shortlist of participants.
Dipa had created history by becoming the first woman gymnast to win a medal — a bronze — in the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2014. She then became the first Indian woman gymnast to feature in the finals of World Championships in November last.
(with inputs from PTI)