Star gymnast Dipa Karmakar claimed the bronze medal at the vault event of the Artistic Gymnastics World Cup in Cottbus, Germany on Saturday.
The 25-year-old, who was forced to miss the Commonwealth Games and had an error-prone campaign at the Asian Games, scored 14.316 points to claim a bronze in the competition. She is also a part of the eight-event qualifying system for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Rebeca Andrade of Brazil clinched the gold medal with a score of 14.728, while USA’s Jade Carey (14.516) settled for the silver.
“It was overwhelming to compete against some of the best athletes in the world!! Aaj ye bronze bhi gold lag raha hai!” tweeted Dipa later. In a series of tweets, she also thanked her coach, federation and fans for their support throughout the tournament.
Earlier, the gymnast from Tripura has reached the vault finals after scoring 14.100 to finish sixth among 16 gymnasts in the qualifying round.
The bronze-medallist, who had narrowly finished fourth at the Rio Olympics, inched steps closer to qualifying for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
“Dipa has done well in the first tournament. She will be travelling to two more events out of Australia, Doha and Baku. But this event was the toughest. Congratulations to her coach Bisweshwar Nandi. They have made the country proud. Now Olympics is not far,” Riyaz Ahmed Bhati, Vice-President of Gymnastic Federation of India (GFI), was quoted as saying by PTI.
“I am also thankful to the sports ministry and SAI for showing faith.”
Following her knee surgery post the Olympics, Dipka was out of action for a year but returned to win gold at the Artistic Gymnastics World Challenge Cup at Mersin in Turkey. She was among India’s biggest hopes for a medal from the Jakarta Asian Games but another knee injury forced her to skip the vault final event while also removing herself from the team event.
Meanwhile, in the balance beam event, Dipa scored a disappointing 11.066 (4.8 + 6.266) to finish at the bottom half among the 32 competing gymnasts.
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