Dipa Karmakar has created history by becoming the first ever Indian gymnast to make the finals at the Olympics. The 22-year-old’s score of 14.850 saw her qualify eighth in the vault event, amongst much confusion in India about the scoring format. Speaking exclusively to Sportskeeda, Coach Bisheshwar Nandi said that they are yet to reveal all their cards, as he was sure they would make the finals.
He said, “We were practicing keeping this in mind that she would make the finals. So we had a set routine for the qualification which she executed according to plan. We will be adding subtle variations to our existent one. Tomorrow will be her off day, but after that she will start practicing on the 700 variations again to help her get a higher rating in the finals.
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“It is all going as per plan right now, it’s all based on her execution. If she executes what we practice, a medal is guaranteed, if it doesn’t, she has still created history. There is no extra pressure on her, we just want her to give her best and I’m sure that it will reap results."
Dipa said, “Actually because Coach Sir asked me to rest, I had slept off, it’s only later that he woke me up to tell me the good news. For me qualification was never the goal to be honest, if I just rest at qualifying, then there is no point of me dreaming higher. I will be practicing new routines which we had discussed today from August 9. If I land those variations, I feel I can win a medal for sure. As of now I just want to take it step by step and rest tomorrow, so I am focussed for the next few days.”
It will be interesting to see what Coach Nandi has planned for Dipa, because she had already landed the Produnova in two attempts during qualificaitons. On being asked, he said, “I can’t completely reveal what they are, but there is a high chance the difficulty will increase. I will discuss more details with you as the event date comes closer.”
Apart from the Produnova, she also landed the Tsuk double full twist, adding yet another risky move to her repertoire. American Simone Biles qualified first with a score of 16.050, followed by North Korea's Jong Un Hong (15.683) and provisional third was taken by Giulia Steingruber (15.266) from Germany.
