Paris Olympics 2024: Dipa Karmakar advances to the final at FIG Apparatus World Cup
On Wednesday, April 17, world class gymnast Dipa Karmakar advanced to the women’s vault final after securing the sixth spot in the qualifying round of the ongoing FIG Apparatus World Cup in Doha, a qualifying event for the Paris Olympics 2024.
Notably, the top eight finishers in the qualifying round will make it to the final. Dipa Karmakar scored 12.500 in the first vault and 13.066 in the second vault to total her score of 12.783. Importantly, the 30-year-old finished in the fourth spot at the Baku Apparatus World Cup in Azerbaijan last month.
Navas Karla (13.916), Georgieva Valentina (13.316), and An Chang Ok (13.166) clinched the top three positions in the qualifying round. Chusovitina (13.049), and Makovickova (12.883) respectively bagged the fourth and fifth spots to make it to the final. The final is scheduled to take place on Friday, April 19.
Speaking on the qualification, Dipa’s long-time coach Bishweshwar Nandi thanked Sports Authority of India (SAI) and hailed the athlete for going through a lot and doing well despite multiple hurdles and challenges on her way.
"I am thankful to SAI for sending me. Dipa Karmakar is sixth now and she will look to do better in the final. She has gone through a lot. It is not easy to compete against the world's best after two ACLs (anterior cruciate ligament injury), so we are not thinking too much about Olympic qualification," her long-time coach Bishweshwar Nandi told PTI.
Unfortunately, Dipa Karmakar has bleak chances to earn a spot at the Paris Olympics 2024 in vault as she currently has an Olympic qualification score of 34. Even a gold medal in the World Cup will take her score to only 64.
Pranati Nayak fails to recreate Dipa Karmakar magic
Pranati Nayak, the other Indian in contention in the qualifying round, failed to make it to the final after finishing 11th in the round.
The bronze medallist in vault at Cairo World Cup also represented India at the Tokyo Olympics. However, she suffered a fall in the second vault to have a final score of 12.416.
The final Olympic qualifier, the Asian Championship, is scheduled to be held in Uzbekistan from May 16 to 19. In Paris, the artistic gymnastics competitions will be held from July 27 until August 5.