Olympic medal will be the best birthday gift for Dipa, says father

Agartala, Aug. 8 (ANI): 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 tomorrow. 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. (ANI)