Dipa Karmakar: First Indian to win gold in Gymnastics World Challenge Cup

India’s leading gymnasts Dipa Karmakar created history by becoming first Indian gymnast to win gold medal in the vault event of FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Challenge Cup at Mersin, Turkey. This is her first medal in World Challenge Cup. Dipa Karmakar scored 14.150 to clinch the gold medal. Indonesia’s won silver medal with 13.400 points followed by Turkey’s Goksu Uctas Sanli who clinched bronze medal with score of 13.200. Dipa also topped qualification with score of 13.400.

Dipa Karmakar

She was born on 9 August 1993 in Agartala, Tripura. In August 2016, she scripted history by becoming first Indian female gymnast to qualify for final vault event at 2016 Rio Olympics, with score of 14.833. She missed out on the bronze medal in finals of the Women’s Vault event by finishing 4th with overall score of 15.066.
She is first Indian female gymnast ever to compete in Olympics, and first Indian gymnast to do so in 52 years. She is only fifth woman in gymnastics history to land Produnova vault (handspring double front). She is also one of the five women who have successfully landed on very difficult Produnova vault in competition.
At 2014 Commonwealth Games held at Glasgow she had created history becoming the first Indian female gymnast to win medal (bronze) in history of the games. She also had won bronze medal at Asian Gymnastics Championships and had finished fifth at the 2015 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships.
Awards and Honours: Government of India has honoured her with Khel Ratna award in August 2016 for her commendable performance in Rio Olympics 2016. She was also awarded Padma Shri, India’s fourth highest civilian award in 2017.

Month: Current Affairs - July, 2018