Gymnast Dipa Karmakar narrowly missed the bronze by finishing fourth in the women’s vault event, scoring an impressive total of 15.066, which included a score of 15.266 for landing the Produnova.
Karmakar shot up to second in the table after her performance, then dropped to third after Russia’s Maria Paseka (15.253) completed her moves – and finally to fourth as USA’s all-conquering Simon Biles pipped everyone for gold.
The gap between Karmakar and Switzerland’s bronze medal winner Giulia Steingruber (15.216) was just 0.15 points – and the feat put her alongside other Indian greats like Milkha Singh and PT Usha, who also missed out on bronze in Rome 1960 and Los Angeles 1984 respectively.
Indian united in praise of Karmakar, who hails from Tripura and has come through as one of the best in the world on the vault despite the lack of gymnastics facilities in India.
Here are some of the best tweets, including those from Olympic champion Abhinav Bindra and superstar Amitabh Bachchan: