Asian Games 2018 | Injured Dipa Karmakar withdraws from artistic team finals

08/22/2018

Indian gymnast Dipa Karmakar has pulled out of the artistic team finals of the ongoing Asian Games in Indonesia after a career-threatening knee injury flared up again. Dipa has blamed it on a jerk felt during the podium practice and has insisted she will perform well in the balancing beam finals.

After the high of Rio, Dipa remained out of action due to a knee injury and had made a comeback only recently at the World Challenge Cup in Mersin Turkey, where she won a gold in the vault. It was her first event after undergoing an Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) surgery in Mumbai, last year in July. She was forced to skip the Commonwealth Games (in Australia) too.

Dipa, who attained global fame attempting the death-defying ‘Produnova’ vault at a stage no less than Olympics for a fourth-place finish in 2016, could not even qualify for her pet event here (in Indonesia). Speaking of which, coach Bisweswar Nandi felt there was a risk of a dangerous injury. However, he said Dipa will definitely do well in balancing beam event considering the low impact the event has on the body.

“There was the risk of a dangerous injury, so she could not be her best. We will give her rest from the team event but she will definitely do well in balancing beam finals as the landing is not as hard,” Nandi told PTI.

Nandi further said that Dipa was inconsolable after failing to qualify for her primary event. Explaining how the injury flared up, he said Dipa felt the jerk while landing as the surface in Indonesia is much harder compared to the one in Delhi.

“Dipa said vault is her identity and worried what people will think. I told her that it was not her fault but she was very upset. She has not had food properly since yesterday. On Monday she started feeling a jerk while landing as the surface here is hard and the one in Delhi was soft (foam) which could absorb the jerk,” he added.

The coach finally said that Dipa would be consulting Dr. Anant Joshi, who had conducted her ACL surgery, after returning to India. He was confident that Dipa would come back stronger and harder.

“We consulted the IOA doctor here and has suggested some rest. It’s a jerk and a two-week rest would be enough. We just did not want to aggravate the injury, so speed had to be compromised. She will be back soon,” Nandi said.

Speaking of her injury, Dipa said she felt the jerk while training and could not give her best. She was upset considering all the hard work that was put behind.

“I felt the jerk during podium training. I could not do my best. I had trained hard for this,” Dipa said.