Commonwealth Games 2014: Gymnast Dipa Karmarkar scripts history

Dipa Karmakar poses with bronze medal in women’s vault

Sparse expectations

The so-called Indian gymnastic fans (not sure how many it could be) must have kept their expectations realistic from their athletes in the Glasgow Commonwealth Games given their much leave-to-be-desired preparations for the multi-sport event. After all, how one can have ‘lofty’ expectations from the gymnastic contingent when they haven’t had international exposure or desired training sessions for close to two years coupled with two rival factions fighting to run the sport . Only a few months of training and a trip to Perth, Australia in April was all that they could avail of, if at all they did.

Given this scenario, not much was expected from our gymnastics which is fully justified, but there was one lady, who was extra determined to prove a point or two and make all and sundry realize that Indian gymnastics sought to be taken seriously.

Amazing talent

Dipa Karmarkar – a young Bengali girl from Tripura – not just made a statement, but shook the record books becoming the first Indian woman to win a gymnastics medal at the Commonwealth Games. The feat of Dipa – it was country’s third medal in Commonwealth Games – after Ashish Kumar snaffled a silver and bronze in the 2010 New Delhi Commonwealth Games. Born and brought up in Agartala, the 20-year-old overcame all the odds stacked against them, bagged the bronze in artistic gymnastics in the women's vault final.

What makes Dipa’s achievement more astounding was that she had to do all the catching up after managing a score of 13.633 points in Vault 1, which was the lowest score among all eight competitors in the final. And what fighting qualities she possesses – Dipa turned the heat on her opponents as she collected 14.366 points to finish third behind Canada’s Elsabeth Black, who gleaned 14.433 points and England’s Fragapane who secured 14.633 points to trigger celebrations in the Indian camp at the SSE Hydro in Glasgow.

It may be worth noting that Dipa had made her Commonwealth Games debut in 2010 as a sixteen year-old and finished seventh – it was the same event where Ashish Kumar became the first Indian gymnast to win a CWG medal – he won a silver in vault and bronze in floor events. The success of Dipa can be also be attributed to the hard work of Bisheswar Nandi, who diligently trained the Indian female gymnastic team in the CWG.

All in the family

Sports runs in the Karmarkar family. Dipa’s father is a weightlifting coach of the Sports Authority of India (SAI) in Agartala. Prior to the Glasgow CWG, she participated in 10 international tournaments and her first international exposure was the London’s World Gymnastic Championship, where Dipa was richer with the experience. The upcoming Incheon Asian Games will be the biggest test for Dipa as she will have to counter the likes of Chinese, Korean and Japanese gymnasts who are known as formidable competitors on the world stage.

Not many know that the Northeastern state of Tripura has the knack of producing talented gymnasts since the 1970s. The state has churned out gymnasts like Mantu Debnath and Kalpan Debnath, both of whom have won Arjuna Awards.