“It did not go as expected”, said Dipa Karmakar as she became the first ever Indian woman to qualify for gymnastics vault final at the Rio Olympics.
Karmakar had one of the highest points for difficulty (7.000) among the women for her risky Produnova vault - a front handspring into double front somersault - but failed to pull it off cleanly as her bottom touched the mat before she bounced back on to her feet.
A score of 15.100 was much lower than she had hoped for and when she stumbled sideways following her second vault to earn 14.600, she knew her average score of 14.850, that left her sixth in the standings at the time, could be overtaken since more than half the field had yet to compete on her signature apparatus.
As the Produnova vault was the first thing I attempted today and it did not go as expected, it immediately put me in a bad mood.Dipa Karmakar
She added:
It wasn’t very good. I was hoping for a better score from the first vault and because it was low, I was really disappointed. My landing had been better in training. My hip touched the mat today which wasn’t part of the plans.
During the course of the next seven hours, only gold medal favourite Simone Biles, who topped the standings with two spectacular soaring vaults that both breached the 16-point barrier, and Canada’s Shallon Olsen leapfrogged the Indian trailblazer.
That meant Karmakar was back in the athlete’s village when she realised her 23rd birthday on Tuesday would be a double celebration as she can look forward to competing in the vault final next Sunday.
Karmakar who became the first Indian to compete in an apparatus final at the world championships last year said:
That I have reached the final is an amazing achievement. My coach is very happy because I executed what he had taught me to do.
(This copy has been edited for length)
(Published in an arrangement with Reuters)