Print this article

Historic! Dipa Karmakar qualifies for vault finals

Last updated on: August 08, 2016 07:13 IST

India's Dipa Karmakar competes on the vault during the artistic gymnastics preliminary women's qualifications, subdivisions, at the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics at the Rio Olympic Arena

IMAGE: India's Dipa Karmakar competesduring the preliminary women's qualifications, subdivisions, at the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics, in Rio de Janeiro, on Sunday. Photograph: Damir Sagolj/Reuters

Indian gymnast Dipa Karmakar scripted history as she became the first Indian to make the cut for the individual vault finals in her debut Olympic Games after finishing 8th in the qualifying round in Rio de Janeiro.

The Tripura-girl, who is the country's first woman gymnast to qualify for the Olympics, managed to perform her much-appreciated 'Produnova' vault cleanly to secure 14.850 points after two attempts.

India's Dipa Karmakar competes on the vault during the artistic gymnastics preliminary women's qualifications, subdivisions, at the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics at the Rio Olympic Arena in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday

IMAGE: India's Dipa Karmakar competes on the vault during the artistic gymnastics preliminary women's qualifications, subdivisions, at the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics at the Rio Olympic Arena in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday. Photograph: Mike Blake/Reuters

It was a nervous wait for the Indian after that. She had ended sixth after the third of five sub-divisions.

She dropped to 8th eventually when Canadian Shallon Olsen's terrific effort of 14.950 rejigged the overall standings.

But that was just about enough to secure her a place in the finals scheduled for August 14 as the top-8 made the cut for the medal round.

Dipa Karmakar competes on the vault during the women's qualifications

IMAGE: Dipa Karmakar competes on the vault during the women's qualifications. Photograph: Mike Blake/Reuters

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.

She landed low on her Produnova vault in the first attempt, while her second vault was a 'Tsuk double full twist' with step to the side.

Three-time world all-round champion Simone Biles topped the charts with a sensational score of 16.050. The American scored a brilliant 9.700 on execution in both her attempts.

North Korea's Jong Un Hong was a distant second after securing 15.683 followed by Switzerland's Giulia Steingruber (15.266).

Dipa Karmakar

IMAGE: India’s Dipa Karmakar goes through her routine on the uneven bars at the Rio Olympics on Sunday. Photograph: Atul Yadav/PTI

In her other routines, Dipa got 11.666 for her effort on the uneven bars, scoring low on difficulty but decent on execution.

Later, she scored 12.866 for her performance on the balance beam.

The floor exercise fetched her a score of 12.033, which also included a 0.300 penalty.

Dipa, the first Indian woman gymnast to win a Commonwealth Games medal, stood a poor 47th in the all-round standings with a combined score of 51.665.

The eight gymnasts with the highest individual scores in each apparatus move on to compete for an individual event title in that apparatus.

The 24 men and 24 women with the highest combined individual totals move on to the all-around finals.

Rio Olympics, on Rediff.com