Dipa Karmakar became the first Indian woman gymnast to qualify for Olympics after putting up a strong show at the final qualifying round of Rio Games test event. Dipa, who is an Asian bronze medallist, qualified in the artistic gymnastics event at Rio after collecting 52.698 points in the test event, according to the world gymnastics governing body, FIG's website. The 22-year-old from Agartala in Tripura has been listed as the 79th gymnast among individual qualifiers in the list of women's artistic gymnast who have qualified for the quadrennial Games.
Besides being the first Indian woman, she will also be an Indian gymnast qualifying for the quadrennial extravaganza after 52 long years. The last participation by India in gymnastics at Olympics was way back in 1964, but during that time there was no qualification system in place. Six men competed at Tokyo 1964 in the artistic individual all-around category.
Till date, 11 Indian men gymnasts have competed in the Olympics - two in 1952, three in 1956 and six in 1964. Dipa will also get a chance in the vault, the event in which she picked up two bronze medals in the 2015 Asian Championships and 2014 Commonwealth Games. She also had finished creditable fifth in the World Championships.
