Dipa Karmakar has always loved making history. From being the first Indian gymnast to take part in Olympics in Rio in 2016 to becoming the country’s first woman to win a medal in the sport in Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, 2014, she has always been an inspiration. She was also the first to win gold in FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Challenge Cup in 2018 in Mersin, Turkey.
And on Sunday she created history one more time as she won gold in Vault at Senior Women Artistic Gymnastics Asian Championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Although Indian gymnasts, including Dipa, won bronze in the Asian meet four times earlier, it was the first time that an Indian finished on top of the podium. The girl from Tripura was expectedly over the moon after accomplishing the feat.
After finishing 16th in the allround category in Tashkent with a score of 46.166 earlier on Friday, Dipa came back with a bang on Sunday to win the gold in Vault with an average score of 13.566. Silver and bronze went to North Korea’s Kim Son-Hyang (13.466) and Jo Kyong-Byol (12.966).
Her first vault on Sunday was a Tsukahara 720 degree turn from a straight body and she followed it up with a straight body front somersault 360 turn. Asked about her performance on the day, Dipa said, “I could have executed it a bit better but there were some penalties and the points were deducted.” Irrespective of the penalties, Dipa still finished strong and coach Bishweshwar Nandi couldn’t have been more proud of his pupil.
