Asian Championship
Gymnast Dipa Karmakar became the first Indian to win a gold medal in women’s vault at the Asian Senior Championship on Sunday the 30-year-old Deepa averaged 13.566 in the vault final on the final day of competition in Uzbekistan’s capital city of Tashkent. North Korea’s Kim Sun Hyang (13.466) and Jo Kyong Bylo (12.966) won the silver and bronze medals respectively. This is Deepa’s second medal at the championships after bronze (14.725) in Hiroshima in 2015.
Hailing from Tripura State, Dipa has achieved remarkable at a young age. First Indian gymnast to complete in Olympics for 1964 summer Olympics 52 years ago. Earlier in 2015, she won bronze in the same event. Finished fourth in the vault final at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
A gold medal on vault at the 2018 FIG World Cup in Mersin, Turkey made Dipa history by becoming the first Indian to win a yellow metal at a global gymnastics event. Deepa, who returned to competition this year after a 21-month suspension for doping, was ruled out of the 2015 Paris Olympics.
The Asian Championship is the final Olympic qualification. She placed fourth in the vault final at the FIG Apparatus World Cup in Doha in April. she still has some hope of going to Paris as she is fourth on the standby list in the vault for the Olympics, but she is not thinking about it for now and wants to enjoy being with her family after returning home. “We don’t know what will happen after her and decide that later, “said coach Bisweshwar.