Sports
Debutant Olympian Karmakar finished eighth in the qualifying round to reach the individual vault final in artistic gymnastics at the quadrennial multi-discipline games.
Updated : Sep 30, 2017, 08:11 AM IST
Parents of Dipa Karmakar are very happy as this morning at around 6.30 they came to know that their daughter, only a day before her 23rd birthday, has created history by becoming the first Indian woman gymnast to enter the final of the Olympics.
Debutant Olympian Karmakar finished eighth in the qualifying round to reach the individual vault final in artistic gymnastics at the quadrennial multi-discipline games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Dipa's father Dulal Karmakar said, "Tomorrow (August 9) is Dipa's birthday and the biggest gift for her will be if she gets a medal in the Olympics. Tomorrow we shall go to the temple to pray to the almighty and hope the people of the nation also pray that she gets a medal."
"Last night we could not sleep out of tension and moreover all her events were not telecasted. Only this morning we came to know that she has been qualified and we are so happy for that we cannot express in words. Her first target was to take part in the Olympics, second was to qualify for the finals and that she has achieved now remains her final target to get a medal from there."
Dulal, a weightlifting coach of Sports Authority of India (SAI), expressed that yesterday he could feel that Karmakar was tense. "Yesterday I felt that she was little nervous and I asked her not be nervous and try to give the best performance what her coach had taught. Later while watching her performance I felt that she was looking quite tensed," said the senior Karmakar.
He expressed that they were very disappointed since they could not see her full performance as it was not fully telecasted. Dulal said: "Camera was turned and missed her second vault, let see what happens in the final. Only the Produnova vault was telecasted the other was not."
He added that right from the morning hundreds of calls are coming from various places and relatives and many are querying about how they are going to celebrate her birthday on Tuesday. The Tripura girl is the first India woman gymnast to qualify for the Olympics and as well as enter the final with her much-appreciated Produnova vault with 14.850 points after two attempts.
Indian fans including Amitabh Bachan on Twitter disapproved of Star Sports for choosing to show other events instead of Karmakar's performance. Here are some of the tweets criticising the channel:
T 2341 - #DipaKarmakar .. they said they would show you but never did .. channels interested in the other country athletes ! Good luck
— Amitabh Bachchan (@SrBachchan) August 7, 2016
Why @StarSportsIndia didn't show Dipa Karmakar performance ? She creates history at Rio and our official broadcaster didn't telecast.
— CHARLIE (@CharlieGulshan) August 8, 2016
@StarSportsIndia I want to watch each & every performance by Dipa Karmakar. Telecast it again RIGHT NOW!!
— Amruta Karve (@karve_amruta) August 7, 2016
@StarSportsIndia hey ...what's going on..no dipa karmakar gymnast telecast..you are showing Britain's gymnast..that's why we subscriber you?
— Harshwardhan shinde (@2sweetharsh) August 7, 2016
This's why sports other than cricket won't grow in India. @StarSportsIndia wasn't interested to show Dipa Karmakar live. #BoycottStarSports
— Sreejith Panickar (@PanickarS) August 7, 2016
They can show that pro kabaddi all day long on 2 channels at the same time bt cant show dipa karmakar. Wat a shame star sports.
— Ridham Saxena (@RidhamRFAUSSIE) August 7, 2016
@MIB_India @Ra_THORe very disappointing telecast by @StarSportsIndia. Didn't cover Dipa Karmakar's events. Was covering Brits and Germans
— Trinethra (@mnk_brf) August 7, 2016
How racist is the coverage of @StarSportsIndia ... Preferring to show British gymnasts do warm up than show Dipa Karmakar's gymnastics.
— Apricotwonders (@apricotwonders) August 7, 2016
@StarSportsIndia why there is no telecast of Dipa Karmakar?Its the first time a girl is representing our country in Gymnastics #DipaKarmakar
— Amaresh Panda (@amresh_26) August 7, 2016
What a disgrace that there is no proper telecast for Dipa karmakar the 1st ever Indian in Artistic gymnast @StarSportsIndia #shame
— Aniket (@redaniket) August 7, 2016
Karmakar scripted history as she became the first Indian to make the cut for the individual vault finals in her debut Olympic Games after finishing 8th in the qualifying round in Rio de Janeiro. Watch her performance here: