Rio de Janeiro: After becoming the first Indian woman gymnast to qualify for the Olympics, Dipa Karmakar has set her eyes on a podium finish at the Rio Games scheduled to be held in August.
The 22-year-old garnered a total score of 52.698 points in the Olympics qualifying event on Monday to book a berth for artistic gymnastics at the Rio Games.
“It is a good feeling to win a gold medal,” Karmakar was quoted as saying at the official Facebook page of the International Federation of Gymnastics.
“My next objective is an Olympic medal,” she said after clinching the gold in vaults finals at the test event of the Rio Games on Monday.
The athlete from Tripura state earned a score of 14.833 — her best effort — to finish first in the women’s vaults finals at the Rio Olympic Arena. She defeated 2008 Olympic silver medallist Oksana Chusovitina of Uzbekistan.
Apart from being the first Indian woman, she will also be an Indian gymnast qualifying for the quadrennial extravaganza after 52 long years.
Since the independence of the country, 11 Indian male gymnasts have taken part in the Olympics (two in 1952, three in 1956 and six in 1964) but it will be the first time an Indian woman gymnast will compete at the Olympics.
