Rio de Janeiro, August 8: Dipa Karmakar created history by becoming the first Indian gymnast to enter the Olympic finals at the Rio Olympic Centre here.
The 22-year-old qualified for the final round in the individual vault final of artistic gymnastics after finishing eighth on the standings on Sunday.
Competing in the third sub-division, Dipa had an average score of 51.665.
She managed to perform her much-vaunted ‘Produnova’ vault cleanly to score 14.850 on the vault, 11.666 on the uneven bars 12.866 in balance beam and 12.033 in floor exercises.
The Tripura gymnast scored executed the ‘Produnova’ in her first attempt on the vault to 15.100 with 8.1 for execution and 7.00 for difficulty.
She scored 14.6 in her second attempt with 8.6 for execution and 6.00 for difficulty.In uneven bars, Deepa scored 7.166 for execution and 4.5 for difficulty. In balance beam, she scored 7.566 for execution and 5.3 for difficulty while in floor exercises her scores read 7.133 for execution and 5.2 for difficulty with a penalty of 0.3.
By time she finished, Deepa was sixth in vaults and 27th overall and had to endure a nervous wait of five hours for the other two sub-divisions to finish. The top eight qualify for the final.
Dipa’s chances seemed bleak after she fell to seventh when Simone Biles of the US scored 16.050 in the vault event.
She dropped another rung to eighth when Canada’s Shallon Olsen’s terrific effort of 14.950 on the vault rejiged the overall standings further.
However, with no other competitor managing to surpass her score in individual vault, Dipa managed to enter individual vault final and grab a piece of history.
Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade topped the overall standings with 58.732 overall. She scored 15.566 on the vault, 14.933 on the uneven bars, 14.2 on the balance beam and 14.033 on the floor exercise.
The Russian duo of Seda Tutkhalian (58.207 overall) and Aliya Mustafina (58.098 overall) finished second and third respectively on the overall standings.
Deepa will compete in the finals on August 14.
