Dipa Karmakar creates history at Artistic Gymnastics World Championships

Dipa Karmakar continues to soar to new heights

Dipa Karmakar continues to shine the torch for Indian gymnastics! The 22-year-old Tripura athlete once again engraved her name in history on Sunday as the first ever Indian to qualify for the finals of the prestigious Artistic Gymnastics World Championships held in Glasgow.

With a score of 14.900 points, she grabbed the seventh place out of eight finalists in Women’s Vault. American Simone Biles, who won multiple gold medals at the 2014 Championships, leads the field with 15.633 points.

Karmakar has a grand chance of booking the much-coveted place for the 2016 Rio Olympics if she manages to secure a medal in the final, which will take place on Saturday, October 31st.

It was a return to the scene of her greatest triumph for Karmakar as the SECC Hydro in Glasgow was the very venue where Dipa had captured her historic Commonwealth Games bronze medal in 2014.

Karmakar, one of the few practitioners of the difficult Produnova vault, executed it on her first jump and scored 15.100 points. She changed her routine on her next attempt and went for the Tsukahara. Totalling 14.700 points in her second jump, she ultimately finished seventh in the qualification standings.

The Arjuna Award winner had arrived in Glasgow with oodles of confidence after having clinched the bronze in Women’s Vault at the Artistic Gymnastics Asian Championship in Hiroshima in August this year.

The following are the qualification results from Women’s Vault at the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships:

1. Simone Biles, USA2. Maria Paseka, RUS3. Hong Un Jong, PRK4. Giulia Steingruber, SUI5. Wang Yan, CHN6. Elissa Downie, GBR7. Dipa Karmakar, IND8. Alexa Moreno, MEX