PTI
Rio de Janeiro, August 16: Trailblazing Indian gymnast Dipa Karmakar said Sunday that she’s not disappointed at missing out on a historic bronze in the vault final of the Rio Olympics here and that she’s satisfied of her performance.
“I never expected a medal from this Olympics but to have come fourth is very creditable. In boxing, wrestling you get a bronze even when you finish fourth but not for gymnastics. It was very close to medal. After four years, my target would be gold,” Dipa said brimming with confidence. “I am sure you will see a better Dipa in the 2020 Tokyo Games, someone who will win a medal.”
The 23-year-old Dipa, who had become the first Indian woman gymnast to have qualified for the Olympics, scored an average of 15.066 points, a mere 0.15 less than the eventual bronze winner Giulia Steingruber (15.216) of Switzerland.
Dipa could have been in the reckoning for a medal had she not landed on her haunches in her risky ‘Produnova’ vault for which she is now known all over the world. Dipa landed on her feet but then sat down and lost points.
She scored 15.266 from her ‘Produnova’ with 8.266 points for execution for a difficulty level of 7. “This is my highest score in Prudonova, I had 15.1 earlier. I am very happy with my vault. I gave my whole effort to bring an Olympic medal for my countrymen. But it was bad luck… that’s it,” stated the sprightly looking lass.
Dipa also pointed out that to have competed at this level under her personal Indian coach Bishweshwar Nandi and without any foreign exposure was really a big achievement.
“Gymnastics is not easy. We don’t have a foreign coach, we were able to achieve this through my coach and SAI’s effort,” informed the gymnast who stands at four feet and 11 inches.
“We have not got any foreign training. We got only three months to prepare for this. To have finished fourth competing against former Olympic champions is a creditable performance. I think it’s a bigger achievement than even Simon Biles, she’s consistently winning gold,” she added.