Dipa Karmakar out of Asian Championships with knee injury, doubts over Worlds and Olympics
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India’s chances of a medal in gymnastics at the Olympics could get a huge blow with Dipa Karmakar’s prolonged rehabilitation putting her out of the Asian Championships and doubts over World Championships. A gymnast has to finish in the top three of eight World Cups to seal an Olympic berth in Tokyo.
It was earlier in March this year when Karmakar had participated in the Baku World Cup where her knee injury actually exacerbated. She had to pull out from the second World Cup in Doha, which was scheduled in the latter end of March.Â
The Rio Olympics star has since been recuperating and consequently missing many international events and important ranking points that would have buoyed her Olympic hopes. And if gone by her coach Bisweswar Nandi’s comments, TOI reported, Karmakar doesn’t have a fixed return time with another three-four months of healing for sure until September.
"I can't commit that she will recover by the time of the World Championship but I am targeting the event for her return. A very few qualifiers will be left after that," Nandi said, reported TOI.Â
The Gymnastics Federation of India (GFI) has also claimed that Karmakar had to go under the knife for the second time in her career in order to have a minor operation on her left knee, as claimed by Nandi. "We can confirm that she opted for a minor operation, but that hasn't been disclosed to anyone other than federation and SAI officials," a GFI official informed.
Hence, while Karmakar won’t definitely be participating in the Asian Championships in Mongolia, scheduled from June 13-16, her role in the championship in Germany, which is slated from October 4-13 and is also a qualifying event for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, is also looking grim.Â
A medal there could have booked Karmakar a berth in Tokyo. In order to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics, the system comprises of eight World Cups, where the top three in these events qualify.
