Asian Games 2018: Dipa Karmakar hurts her knee, pulls out of team final

Gymnastics - Artistic - Olympics: Day 9 — Dipa Karmakar

What’s the story?

In a major disappointment for the Indian contingent, star gymnast Dipa Karmakar has pulled out of the women’s team final at the Asian Games 2018, which is scheduled later in the day on Wednesday. Karmakar hurt her right knee during a practice session ahead of the team final qualification on Tuesday.

The Indian team, comprising Karmakar, Pranati Nayak, Pranati Das and Aruna Budda Reddy qualified in seventh place for the final.

In case you didn’t know

Karmakar had been out of action for nearly two years following her highly-talked about fourth-place finish at the Rio Olympics. She underwent a surgery to repair the ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) on her right knee, that made her miss the World Championships in 2017 and the Commonwealth Games 2018.

She made a grand comeback at the Gymnastics World Challenge Cup in Turkey in July, where she won the gold in vault.

The heart of the matter

According to reports, Karmakar had been training on foam pits in Delhi during the national camp in a precautionary measure not to put pressure on her right knee. However, only hard pits are being used at the Asian Games, which added to her woes.

The 25-year-old injured the same knee that she underwent a surgery on during landing in a training session in Jakarta. The resulting pain in her knee restricted her movement and curbed her from giving her all during the qualifications for the team and the individual apparatus finals.

Even though Dipa did eventually make it to the balance beam final, she failed to get a place in the final in vault, which is her forte. Her coach Bisheshwar Nandi is hoping that a few days of rest will allow the Tripura gymnast to recover from the injury and she will be fit for the balance beam final.

In Karmakar’s absence, the Indian women’s team will be represented by Nayak, Das, Reddy and Mandira Choudhury.