Dipa Karmakar caps golden run in Rio

Dipa Karmakar en route to her gold medal in the women’s vault final of the artistic gymnastics test event for the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Monday. (Photo: AFP)

After becoming the first Indian woman gymnast to qualify for the Olympics, Dipa Karmakar has set her eyes on a podium finish at the Rio Games scheduled to be held in August.

The 22-year-old garnered a total of 52.698 points in the Olympics qualifying event on Monday to book a berth for artistic gymnastics in Rio Games.

“It is a good feeling to win a gold medal,” Dipa was quoted as saying on the official Facebook page of the International Federation of Gymnastics.

“My next objective is an Olympic medal podium,” she said after clinching gold in the vaults finals at the test event of the Rio Games on Monday.

The Tripura girl scored 14.833 as her best effort to finish first in the women’s vault finals at the Rio Olympic Arena. She defeated 2008 Olympic silver medallist Oksana Chusovitina of Uzbekistan.

Apart from being the first Indian woman, she will also be an Indian gymnast qualifying for the quadrennial extravaganza after 52 years.

Since independence, 11 Indian male gymnast have taken part in the Olympics (two in 1952, three in 1956 and six in 1964) but this will be the first for an Indian woman at the Olympics.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi praised Dipa saying she has brought laurels for the country by her sheer determination. “Dipa has made India proud and brought glory to its name. First time, a daughter from the country has been selected in gymnastics stream for the Rio Olympics. She has achieved the feat through her determination. Lack of resources never came in her way,” he said.