Dipa tops all-around competition in Asian Games selection trials

Despite adopting a cautious approach on her return to competitive gymnastics following a 21-month suspension due to a doping violation, Dipa Karmakar garnered the maximum points to emerge as the number one female gymnast in the individual all-around competition in the Asian Games selection trials at the Kalinga Stadium here on Tuesday.

The 29-year-old Dipa, who had knee surgeries a few years back and trained with a tape around her right knee, did not go for high difficulty scores in vault, uneven bars, beam and floor exercises and collected a total of 47.05. Dipa was comfortably ahead of her closest competitor Pranati Das, who gathered 45.80.

Her coach Bishweshwar Nandi and wife Soma Nandi, who is Dipa’s first coach, were anxious about their ward’s fitness, but heaved a sigh of relief when she executed the Tsukahara 360 technique on the vaulting table without any issues. Subsequently, she went on to complete the rest of the routine.

“I fought with every odd to make a comeback. This is a big comeback for me. For me, my performance was okay if not 100%. But I will try to give my 100% in future. I want to thank all who supported me during my low phase,” said Dipa.

Nandi said they did not want to take any risk today (as she was coming back after a considerable gap) and would take a bit of risk on the morrow (going for her individual apparatus, vault).

Rakesh Patra, Yogeshwar Singh, Pranati Nayak, Pranati Das skipped the trials as they took the option of going with their all-around scores achieved at the Asian championship in Singapore last month.

Two promising Odisha gymnasts, Tapan Mohanty and Tapeshwarnath Das, performed well to make it to the top-six in men’s individual all-around.

The results: Individual all-around: Men: 1. Yogeshwar Singh 76.30, 2. Rakesh Patra 76.20, 3. Tapan Mohanty 74.60, 4. Abhijeet Kumar 73.95, 5. Gaurav Kumar 73.85, 6. Tapeshwarnath Das 70.05.

Women: 1. Dipa Karmakar 47.05, 2. Pranati Das 45.80, 3. Pranati Nayak 44.43, 4. Bidisha Gayen 41.05, 5. Shradha Talekar 40.10, 6. Protistha Samanta 39.95.