Gymnast Dipa Karmakar heads to Rio with Olympic qualification on the line

The Tripura lass had produced her best effort in the vault in the World Championships by scoring 14.683 at Glasgow in October last year. But with the competition at its peak, the Indian missed out on the podium by 0.858 points and thus missed out on a place in the quadrennial event.

However, Dipa will get a second crack at qualifying for the Olympics, when she travels to the Olympic host city on April 12 for gymnastics Test event, which will also serve as the final qualifying meet. Although the 22-year old was initially on the reserve list for the event, she found herself in the shortlist with 40-odd other gymnasts in March. The Indian can be assured of a place in the Olympics, if she can make it to the top 24 in the qualifying event.

Speaking to the Indian express, the Asian championships bronze medallist expressed her hope of qualifying for the quadrennial event and was confident of doing well in all the apparatuses.

“I am 90 percent certain I’ll be able to qualify, but what’s for sure is that my basics of gymnastics, all that I’ve learnt on every apparatus will be tested at Rio. It won’t be just one aspect – the vault. It’ll be a test of my all-round capability,” Dipa said.

Although, the Commonwealth Games bronze medallists’ favourite event is the vault, she will have to do well in all the other three apparatuses – Balance Beam, Uneven Bars and the Floor – to qualifying for the Olympics.

“My execution at the Worlds on other apparatus was real bad. I even slipped off the Balance Beam. This time, I’ve trained to prevent all those falls,” she said, after a training session at the IG stadium.

Dipa’s coach Bisweshwar Nandi said that the young gymnast has been working on her weak areas after the World Championships and will try to make it to the top 24.

“This time, we’re looking for an overall position, and not focussing on medalling in the vault alone. At the Worlds, we did that, but her performance on the other three suffered and she almost missed on being called to the Test event. Now that she’s earned the chance, we want her to qualify,” Nandi told the Indian express.