Dipa Karmakar eyes gold at 2020 Games
Path-breaking Indian gymnast Dipa Karmakar is not disappointed at missing out on a historic bronze in the vault final of the Rio Olympics here and instead she is aiming for a gold in the next edition
Path-breaking Indian gymnast Dipa Karmakar is not disappointed at missing out on a historic bronze in the vault final of the Rio Olympics here and instead she is aiming for a gold in the next edition of the Summers Games in Tokyo.
“I never expected a medal from this Olympics but to have come fourth is very creditable. In boxing, wrestling you get a bronze even when you finish fourth but not for me. It was very close to medal. After four years, my target would be gold,” Dipa said brimming with confidence after her brilliant effort on Sunday.
“For me this is my first Olympics. But I don’t need to be disappointed I will give my best in Tokyo 2020,” she said.
“I’m fully satisfied with my performance. This is my highest score. But the medalists were better than me. Maybe, it was not my day,” she said.
She said with some luck she could have got a medal. “It’s my bad luck that I missed the bronze medal by a few points. But no problem, I never expected this fourth place finish in my first Olympics.”
She scored 15.266 from her ‘Produnova’ with 8.266 points for execution for a difficulty level of 7. “This is my highest score in Produnova, I had 15.1 earlier. I am very happy with my vault. I gave my whole effort to bring an Olympic medal for my countrymen.”
Dipa also pointed out that to have competed at this level under her personal Indian coach Bishweshwar Nandi and without any foreign exposure was really a big achievement.
“Gymnastics is not that easy. We don’t have a foreign coach, we were able to achieve this through my coach and the SAI’s effort,” said the gymnast who stands at four feet and 11 inches.