Achi news desk-
Dipa Karmakar in action (Credit:
The 30-year-old, who finished a creditable fourth at the Baku Apparatus World Cup in Azerbaijan last month, scored 12.500 in the first vault and 13.066 in the second vault for a total of 12.783.
Star Indian gymnast Dipa Karmakar entered the women’s vault final on Wednesday after finishing sixth in the preliminary round of the FIG Apparatus World Cup, a qualifying event for the Paris Olympics, in Doha.
The 30-year-old, who finished fourth at the Baku Apparatus World Cup in Azerbaijan last month, scored 12.500 in the first vault and 13.066 in the second vault for a total of 12.783.
Navas Karla (13.916), Georgieva Valentina (13.316) and An Chang Ok (13.166) took the first three positions in the qualifying round.
The eight best finishers in the qualification round reach the finals.
“I am grateful to SAI for sending me. Dipa is now sixth and will be looking to do better in the final. She has been through a lot. It is not easy to compete against the world’s best after two ACLs (anterior cruciate ligament injury), so we are not thinking too much about Olympic qualification,” her long-time coach Bishweshwar Nandi told PTI.
The final is scheduled for Friday.
However, the other Indian in the fray, Pranati Nayak, failed to qualify for the final after finishing 11th in the qualifying round.
Pranati, 29, who had won the bronze medal in the vault event at the Cairo World Cup in February and has also represented India at the Tokyo Olympics, suffered a fall in the second vault to find a score of 12.416.
“She had a bit of ankle swelling but mostly the fall in the second vault that affected her,” said coach Ashok Kumar Mishra.
Dipa, who battled two knee surgeries in 2017 and 2019 for ACL tears and a 21-month ban for doping, is unlikely to qualify for the Paris Games in the vault as she has an Olympic qualification score of 34 and even one. A gold medal here will only take his score to 64.
“Only two gymnasts in each apparatus will qualify in the women’s vault from this tournament and Valentina from Bulgaria and Chang from Korea are leading with 84 and 80 points,” said Mishra.
Valentina had won the gold ahead of Chang at the last World Cup in Baku.
Gymnasts earn Olympic ranking points from the Apparatus World Cup series based on how well they do compared to other qualified gymnasts on each apparatus. The highest ranked qualified gymnast in a final earns 30 ranking points, second highest 25, and so on.
Dipa, who returned after completing the dope ban only last year, did not take part in the World Cup in Cottbus, Germany (February 22-25).
Dipa had finished fifth at the Cairo World Cup (February 15-18), where Pranati won a bronze medal.
The Asian Championship, to be held in Uzbekistan between May 16 and 19, is the Olympic qualifying final.
“In the Asian Championships, only one girl can qualify and that too overall. It will be very difficult, our girls will have to do well not only in vault but also in three other apparatus,” Mishra said.
(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from the feed of a syndicated news agency – PTI)
