Rio de Janeiro: Dipa Karmakar created history by becoming the first Indian gymnast to enter the Olympic final at the Rio Olympic Centre here. The 22-year-old qualified for the final round in the Individual vault final of artistic gymnastics after finishing eighth on the standings on Sunday.
Competing in the third sub-division, Dipa had an average score of 51.665. She managed to perform her much-vaunted ‘Produnova’ vault cleanly to score 14.850 on the vault, 11.666 on the uneven bars 12.866 in balance beam and 12.033 in floor exercises.
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. The top eight qualify for the final.
Dipa’s chances seemed bleak after she fell to seventh when Simone Biles of the US scored 16.050 in the vault event. She dropped another rung to eighth when Canada’s Shallon Olsen’s terrific effort of 14.950 on the vault rejiged the overall standings further.
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. 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.
