Dipa Champions Girl Power

Indian Ace gymnast Dipa Karmakar scripted history by wearing the crown of the first Indian woman gymnast to get a bronze medal in the recently concluded Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. Dipa, 22, golden girl of Tripura , won the CWG bronze bagging an average score of 14.366 points in comparison to Canada’s Elsabeth Black (Silver – 14.433) and England’s Claudia Fragpane (Gold – 14.633). She had 13.633 points in Vault 1, the lowest among the total eight contenders. Later, in an amazing comeback, she got 15.100 points which was the highest in Vault 2, bringing up her average point to 14.366. She was away from Silver medal by 0.1. Not being swayed by her grand achievement, Dipa has set her eyes on the coming Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea.

 

Excerpts:In the midst of her training programme at Indira Gandhi Stadium in New Delhi for the Asian Games, the young gymnast opens up with Priyanka Deb Barman about her struggle in bagging CWG medal and preparations for next target.

EP: You have bagged the historic CWG medal as the youngest athlete. In fact, you are the first Indian woman to get the CWG medal. Share your feelings with us.

DK: I am very happy that I made my country proud by getting a bronze medal. It is a great achievement for me. Besides, I would have been much happier, if I could bring silver or gold medal. Even my coach Nandi Sir also admitted that I could have scored to win silver or a gold.

Sports Authority of India and Indian Gymnastic Federation welcomed me in a grand way after I stepped at the Indira Gandhi International airport with our country’ s pride – bronze medal. I bathed in thousands of congratulatory messages from my friends, relatives from India within few minutes of winning the bronze medal in Scotland. I also had a fabulous reception at Agartala, my hometown. Chief Minister of my state - Manik Sarkar and Sports Minister Shahid Choudhury blessed me for a bright future. Tripura State Olympics Asociation also greeted me saying that my performance have added glory to the entire nation along with the state. That day will remain as a sunny day for me in my life.

Priyanka Deb Barman

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