BENGALURU: Two kilometres: That is the distance between India gymnast Dipa Karmakar’s house and her coach Bisweswar Nandi’s residence in Agartala. Despite the short distance, the mobile phone has become an essential tool for both with their communication restricted to calls, including a few via video when required, after the 26-year-old is done with training. With the country in lockdown due to the COVID-19 outbreak, Nandi has strictly instructed Dipa to stay home and not venture out.
In such times, the gymnast is not wasting any time. She is spending much of her time in physical exercises in the morning and evening to get back in her best shape. “Due to this coronavirus situation, there is a lockdown and I had to stop my practice too, which I had started recently. As of now, I am working on my fitness at home. Around evening, I inform sir (Nandi) of the things (exercises) that I did during the day via phone,” Dipa told this daily.
Such emphasis on attaining top fitness does not come as a surprise. After an impressive fourth-position finish in Rio Olympics, she suffered anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tear in 2017 and underwent surgery, which kept her out of the sport for almost a year. The 4-feet, 11-inch athlete won gold in Artistic Gymnastics World Challenge Cup in Turkey in 2018 and bronze in Artistic Gymnastics World Cup in Germany. The same year also witnessed her pull out of the Artistic team finals in the Asian Games due to injury.
Again, the knee injury came to haunt her in 2019, where she could not compete in the final of Artistic Gymnastics World Cup in Baku. As a result, she missed out on the Doha World Cup, one of the qualifying events for Tokyo. Just when her Olympic chances looked slim, the postponement of Olympics by one year means she can feature in the last two qualifying events for Tokyo in Baku and Doha. Both events have been postponed, giving her more time to prepare.
“Out of the eight qualifying tournaments for Tokyo Olympics, two remain. She should feature in both, but has to be in good form and fitness also,” said Nandi. “First of all, one has to understand that she is coming out of an injury. There will be a psychological fear, but we will try to overcome that and prepare well. If she finishes with a medal in both the events, then there are chances of her qualifying. Let’s see, but it is not going to be easy.” Though Dipa can use this time for doing free-hand exercises, she cannot be involved in full-fledged training until the lockdown ends on April 14.