Dipa finishes impressive fourth at Apparatus World Cup

Star India gymnast Dipa Karmakar on Friday signed off with another creditable fourth place finish in women’s vault final at the FIG Apparatus World Cup, a Paris Olympics qualifying event in Doha.

The 30-year-old, who had finished fourth at the Baku Apparatus World Cup in Azerbaijan last month, once again missed out on a medal by a whisker after coming up with a score of 13.333.

Panama’s Navas Karla (13.850) claimed the gold medal, while An Chang Ok of Korea (13.833) and Georgieva Valentina (13.466) won the silver and bronze respectively.

Dipa had finished sixth in the qualifying round of the Paris Olympics qualifier.

The other Indian in fray, Pranati Nayak had failed to qualify for the final after finishing 11th in the qualifying round.

Dipa, who battled two knee operations in 2017 and 2019 due to ACL tears and a 21-month suspension due to a doping violation, thus failed to qualify for the Paris Games in vault.

Gymnasts earn Olympic ranking points from the Apparatus World Cup series based on how well they do compared to other eligible gymnasts on each apparatus. The highest-ranked eligible gymnast in a final earns 30 ranking points, second highest 25, and so on.

Dipa, who returned after completing the doping ban only last year, didn’t participate in the World Cup in Cottbus, Germany (February 22-25). She had finished fifth in Cairo (February 15-18) World Cup.

The Asian Championship, scheduled to be held in Uzbekistan from May 16 to 19, is the final Olympic qualifier.