Press Trust of India
New Delhi, April 17: Top Indian gymnast Dipa Karmakar completed her performance at the Final Qualifier and Olympic Test Event in Rio de Janeiro as she produced a strong show, finishing ninth in the first of the four sub-divisions of the women’s artistic category.
Dipa, seeking to become the first Indian woman gymnast to qualify for Olympics, garnered a score of 52.698 points. Her final rankings will be known only after completion of the event with competition in three other sub-divisions going on currently.
Her first vault, the much difficult ‘Produnova’, gave Dipa 15.066 points, the highest among 14 competitors. But a poor show in the uneven bars took her points down as she collected 11.700, the second worse among the participants. The Tripura girl secured 13.366 and 12.566 points respectively in beam and floor exercises.
Gymnastic officials here said that her Rio Games berth is more or less assured after her strong show.
“Dipa is 100 per cent assured of an Olympic berth with 52.698 points. There are three subdivisions to go but she has already beaten gymnasts from three countries. So she has qualified,” international referee Deepak Kagra stated here Sunday.
“This Test event has participants from 33 countries and since her score is above the participants of at least three nations, she will finish in the top 30 country-wise. That is enough for her to qualify for Rio Olympics,” he added.