Rio 2016: Dipa Karmakar vaults into history, becomes 1st Indian to enter finals

Karmakar will attempt the deadly Produnova on Sunday.

Dipa Karmakar is destiny’s child. Or, maybe, the gymnast is a poor student of history and that’s why she keeps writing it herself. Already the first Indian gymnast to qualify for Olympics, Dipa on Sunday became the first Indian to enter an apparatus final. With a score of 14.850, she scrapped to the vault final as the last member among eight.

Dipa, who will turn 23 on Tuesday, has given herself a perfect birthday present. She has plenty of time to perfect her vault routines as the final is scheduled for Sunday. Dipa may have finished outside the medal bracket in the qualifiers, but expect the unexpected from her. With a score of 16.050, American prodigy Simone Biles is the overwhelming favourite for the vault gold. But Dipa can go for the jugular in the final because she has nothing to lose, having already proved herself on the grandest stage.

Dipa threw caution to the wind in the qualifiers and went for her signature Produnova vault, a front handspring into double front somersault, with the highest difficulty of 7.0. Although the Indian couldn’t nail the landing, she did enough to progress to the final. “As the Produnova vault was the first thing I attempted today and it did not go as expected, it immediately put me in a bad mood,” Dipa said. “It wasn’t very good. I was hoping for a better score from the first vault and because it was low, I was really disappointed. My landing had been better in training. My hip touched the mat today, which wasn’t in the plans. That I have reached the final is an amazing achievement. My coach is very happy because I executed what he had taught me to do,” she added.

The intrepid Tripura girl didn’t just take up an alien sport, she keeps raising the bar in gymnastics for a cou-ntry of billion-plus. Dipa, who has a string of firsts to her name, will take a plu-nge into the unknown on Sunday. India will be watching her with bated breath.