At a time when Indian gymnastics is fighting a war within itself, 20-year-old Dipa Karmakar’s bronze medal winning feat at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow has put things in perspective.
Four years ago Ashish Kumar had done it. Now Dipa, hailing from Agartala, has done it to stress that if the sport can get rid of factionalism and improve administration, the gymnasts can win many more laurels for the country in major international sporting events.
Gymnastics, sadly, has continued to languish as a ‘non-priority’ sport even after Ashish’s medals in the 2010 Commonwealth and Asian Games. However, Dipa did not give up and toiled hard, away from the limelight.
Only the keen followers of the sport will remember that as a 17-year-old Dipa had competed in the Delhi Commonwealth Games and the Guangzhou Asian Games in 2010 and had finished seventh in vaulting with scores of 13.45 (CWG) and 13.85 (Asiad).
Scaling new heightsSlowly, her performance reached new heights before she achieved a 14 to take the top honours in the Commonwealth invitational championship at Perthshire, Scotland, earlier this year.
Dipa achieved her dream of a medal at the Games with an average score of 14.366 and becoming the first Indian woman to get a medal at a major event. Nine days before turning 21, she has presented herself the best birthday gift so far.
“She is an explosive gymnast. She has a lot of potential in vault and floor. Had she got proper facilities and the required exposure, she would have done much better,” said gymnastics coach K.R. Mangla, who has seen Dipa from her junior days.
Groomed by international gymnast-turned-coach Bisweswar Nandi, Dipa drew everyone’s attention when she bagged several medals to finish second in all-around competition in the National junior artistic championship at Jalpaiguri (West Bengal) in 2007.
Two-time championAfter graduating to the senior level, Dipa became the National champion in 2010 and 2011 besides winning five gold medals in the Ranchi National Games.
All through, she had the support of her parents, especially her father Dulal Karmakar — a weightlifting coach with Sports Authority of India’s Agartala centre. “Dipa’s body structure was fit for gymnastics, so I put her into that. Her coach (Bisweswar Nandi) has put in a lot of hard work to turn her into a top-level athlete,” said Karmakar over phone from Agartala.
The whole of Tripura and the ‘Dipa Karmakar Fan Club’ on Facebook are celebrating the achievement. “I am proud of Dipa. All the newspapers here have carried big headlines about her and I am busy attending phone calls since last night,” said her father.
