BHUBANESWAR: After a 21-month suspension, India's top gymnast Dipa Karmakar made a strong comeback by securing the top place with 47.05 points in the women's senior individual provisional results of the ongoing GFI Artistic Gymnastics Selection Trials for the Asian Games held at Kalinga Stadium here on Tuesday. The trials will conclude on Wednesday.
Dipa tested positive for the prohibited substance higenamine and was banned until July 10, 2023. Talking about today’s performance Dipa said, “I had gone through a really tough time of my life. It’s a big comeback for me. My performance is not 100 percent here but still, I am happy to finish on top. I am thankful to my supporters, coaches and the federation who stood with me during my bad phase of my career.”
“I am hopeful to get selected in the India team for the Asian Games to be held at Hangzhou. I will get two more months for training and I am sure I will improve my performance at the Asian Games” added Dipa. "Many young talented gymnasts are coming forward in our country which is a positive development in the sport. They are putting challenges for the senior players. I love to compete with them."
“Being a coach I am happy to see Dipa in the selection trial for Asian Games and confident that she will bounce back strongly," her coach Bishweshwar Nandi said. "In the last one and half months she trained at Agartala for this. To take care of her injury, we appointed a personal physiotherapist from Delhi. I am not only a coach for her, but I have also played different roles in her life like father, guardian, mentor, physio, etc, and understood that she is a mentally strong player and never succumbs to any situation in her life”, said coach Bishweshwar Nandi.
Top 8 women senior individual provisional results: Dipa Karmakar (47.05), Pranati Das (45.80), Pranati Nayak (44.45), Bidisha Gayen (41.05), Shradha Talekar (40.10), Protistha Samanta (39.95), Swastika Ganguly (39.95), Mallika Kulshreshtha (38.60).
Top 7 men Sr individual provisional results: Yogeshwar Singh (76.30), Rakesh Patra (76.20), Tapan Mohanty (74.60), Abhijit Kumar (73.95), Gaurav Kumar (73.85), Tapeswarnath Das (70.05), Satyajit Mondal (69.45).