Indian gymnast Dipa Karmakar won over a billion hearts on Sunday on the eve of India’s 70th independence day by pulling off a stellar performance at the Rio Olympics.
Though she narrowly missed a medal but managed to create history in the women’s vault finals when she produced the best ever performance by an Indian gymnast at the Olympic games.
She tweeted to apologise to people of India for failing to win a medal.
The 23-year-old scored an average of 15.066 points, missing an Olympic medal by a whisker. She scored just 0.15 less than bronze winner Giulia Steingruber (15.216) of Switzerland.
Earlier, she became the first Indian gymnast to qualify for the individual vault finals in her first Olympics.
She managed to perform her much-appreciated 'Produnova' vault cleanly to secure 14.850 points after two attempts and qualify for finals.
She had ended sixth after the third of five sub-divisions.
She dropped to 8th eventually when Canadian Shallon Olsen's terrific effort of 14.950 rejigged the overall standings.
But that was just about enough to secure her a place in the finals.
The Produnova – a handspring double-front somersault – was termed as “the vault of death”, has the highest degree of difficulty for a women’s vault, a 7.0, and only five women in the world have attempted it in the competition.
For the first time, an Indian gymnast has qualified for an Olympic final. #DipaKarmakar #Rio2016https://t.co/H0ehPRaVpg — scroll.in (@scroll_in) August 8, 2016
While Dipa apologised for not winning a medal, she has already made India proud with her brilliant effort.
