Karmakar becomes first Indian to qualify for World gymnastics finals
Dipa Karmakar made history on Sunday by becoming the first Indian to qualify for the finals of the World Gymnastics Championship currently underway in Glasgow. A medal in the premier competition will secure her qualification for next year’s Rio Olympics.
Arjuna awardee Karmakar returned to the venue of her biggest breakthrough in international gymnastics, the SSE Hydro, where she won a bronze in the vault event at the Commonwealth Games 2014.
The 22-year-old from Agartala scored a 14.900 in the women’s vault qualification to finish seventh among the eight finalists. The Indian artistic gymnast landed the technically difficult Produnova, a handspring, double front summersault, in her first jump, gaining her a score of 15.100.
In her second jump, Karmakar, who won a bronze in the 2015 Asian Games, changed her routine to Tsukahara 720 turns which gave her a score of 14.700.
American Simone Biles scored 15.633 to lead the eight-woman list. The finals will be held on October 31.
Elsewhere, Indian men Ashish Kumar, Rakesh Patra and Siddharth Verma participated in the Pommel Horse, Floor, Ring, Parallel bars and Horizontal bars events, but failed to qualify for the finals. Patra finished 91 with a score total of 80.864, while Kumar finished 159 after gaining an overall score of 75.014 and Verma finished 160 after having scored 74.998 to in the all-around qualifiers.
