“I thank each and every one of them”, Dipa later said to NDTV.
Advertisement
“Agar medal milta toh shayad ye award leke mai bahaut khush hoti (If I had won the medal, I would have been very happy with this award)”, the athlete, who has been nominated for the Khel Ratna, said. Hopefully, better things will follow.
Dipa and her coach Bishweshwar Nandi were accorded a heroes’ welcome back home following her extraordinary performance in Rio.
Hundreds of fans, officials, followers, admirers and well-wishers received Dipa and her coach Bisheshwar Nandi at the Agartala airport. “I became famous for my vault in the Olympics some called me “Produnova Girl” others called me “Dipa Produnova”, a lot of people were cheering for me in the finals”.
“Everyone else, like my parents and coach will be unhappy, their regret would have been much less had I finished fifth or sixth”. And for me more important is that my coach Bishweshwar Nandi winning the Dronacharya Award.
Nandi said, “Create better infrastructure, I can talk about creating more Dipas”.
“She will be greeted by the crowd and there will be a welcome song”.
She was then taken to the stadium in an open vehicle where she was felicitated by the Chief Minister Manik Sarkar. “Dipa and Nandi will also be requested to briefly address the gathering of students of various schools and colleges”, said the sports minister today.
Dipa will give her MA examination in political science under Tripura (Central) University from Tuesday and the test is scheduled to continue till August 30.
She is pursuing the course via a distance education programme as she is a government job holder. This will be her second semester exam. On Sunday in Rio, she scored 15.066 in the same event, a huge improvement in two years but not good enough to get her the Olympic bronze, which she missed by a whisker.
Advertisement
Saturday was the first home-coming for Dipa after a stellar performance at Rio.
