She is also famous for her fighting spirit but none of that was visible today as the opposition steam-rolled her.
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2016 Rio Olympics – Artistic Gymnastics – Preliminary – Women’s Qualification – Subdivisions – Rio Olympic Arena – Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – 07/08/2016.
Her historical Olympic debut garnered congratulatory tweets from around the world. She finished eighth in the qualification event with a score of 14.850.
It is named after Yelena Produnova, who was the first person to complete the vault in 1999.
Interestingly, Karmakar’s historic victory comes a day before her 23rd birthday on 9 August. The Tripura gymnast scored executed the “Produnova” in her first attempt on the vault to 15.100 with 8.1 for execution and 7.00 for difficulty. It’s not called a double-front somersault for nothing.
Simone Biles, three-time world all-round champion and gold medal favourite, topped the chart with a sensational score of 16.050.
Various reports have pointed out that because the vault is extremely hard and nearly-life threatening, completing it successfully also means very high scores. We want Dipa to know that as she prepares for that final vault.
“That I have come here and am participating against these gymnasts is a great honour in itself”, Dipa said after her performance. “Dipa always loved and helped her juniors and is a very caring person”, Saha said. She is awestruck too. “She will go all out in the finals”.
“Some people were so jealous of Dipa, they would not give her any access to the apparatus during her training sessions”, he said. She finished eighth in the vault, enough to qualify for the final.
“I have never seen such an atmosphere before and I was overawed”.
Disappointment not owing to her performance, but because of the wink-and-you’ll-miss-it coverage she got on Star Sports India. “If she gets a medal, that will be the biggest gift for her”, Dulal said.
“Simon Biles came up to me and wished me luck to do well in Produnova”. “I never expected that I would be competing or standing with such high-level players”. A comment on the YouTube video of Fadwa Mahmoud says, “However, I don’t think any gymnast should compete this vault until they can land on their feet standing, with knee bend NO MORE than 90 degrees, pretty consistently”.
“In the last three months I did 1000 repetitions of the move”. Wherever I go they ask for a picture and an autograph with me. Her fate was in the balance, and Dipa’s parents could not sleep because of the tension.
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The Russians enjoyed the better start, taking the first set 55-48. What I learnt, I did.
