Rio 2016: India, Dipa Karmakar eye historic medal

Dipa Karmakar trains on the balance beam in Rio de Janeiro. (Photo: AP )

She has already grabbed a piece of history by becoming the first Indian female gymnast to qualify for the Olympics and Dipa Karmakar will aim to touch greater heights when she competes at the Rio Games, here on Sunday.

Fighting all odds, the 22-year-old diminutive girl from Tripura qualified for the Olympics at this very venue in April. She has given her soul into mastering the highly difficult Produnova — a double front somersault vault — and is relying on it for a super show.

Dipa says she has done about 1,000 repetitions of the move so the key for her would be do well in the uneven bars, beam and floor exercises.

“I’ve seen her tremendous hard work and determination. Initially I was scared when she tried it but her never-say-die attitude makes her confident. We just need to stay focused,” her coach B. Nandi said.

Biles and Douglas to lead US charge Even on “autopilot”, Simone Biles and Gabby Douglas will spearhead a powerful United States women’s gymnastics team’s bid for Olympic gold from Sunday.

Douglas, 20, is the reigning Olympic all-around titleholder and Games rookie Biles, 19, a three-time world all-around champion.

The US are the reigning Olympic and two-time world team champions, with gold theirs for the taking with the battle between Douglas and Biles set to ignite the all-around. “We’ve done so many routines we’re kind of on autopilot right now, so it’s just like go, go, go, go,” warned Douglas, bidding to become the first woman since Czechoslovakia’s Vera Caslavska in 1968 to win back-to-back all-around gold.

Too young to compete in London, the acrobatic Biles has dominated the four-year Olympic cycle since, winning 10 world titles and is the overwhelming favourite to be the star of the Rio Olympic Arena.

She snatched another gold in last year’s worlds ahead of Douglas, and the 2013 and 2014 world titles as her rival took time off after the London Games.

“We’re so well-prepared that we know what to expect of ourselves and our gymnastics once we go out there on the competition floor,” said Biles, bidding to become the first woman to win five gymnastic gold medals at a single Olympics.

“It’s the Olympics, but we are trying to treat it like a (national) championships.”