Dipa Karmakar wins gold in Gymnastics World Challenge Cup

<p>Returning to action after a lay-off of nearly two years due to an injury, <strong>India's premier gymnast Dipa Karmakar clinched the gold medal</strong> in the vault event of <strong>FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Challenge Cup at Mersin, Turkey.</strong></p> <p>The<strong> 24-year-old from Tripura</strong>, who had finished fourth in vault event in the <strong>2016 Rio Olympics</strong>, <strong>scored 14.150 to win the top prize</strong>. She had<strong> topped the qualification</strong> with a <strong>score of 13.400</strong>.</p> <p>This is Dipa's <strong>first medal in a World Challenge Cup</strong>.</p> <p>In her first attempt, <strong>Dipa </strong>had a difficulty score of 5.400 while collecting 8.700 in execution for a total of 14.100. She improved the score in her second attempt to 14.200 (5.600+8.600), giving her a total average of 14.150.</p> <p><strong>Rifda Irfanaluthfi of Indonesia</strong> clinched the silver with 13.400 points while local woman <strong>Goksu Uctas Sanli</strong> took the bronze with a score of 13.200.</p> <p>Dipa, who is being accompanied by her coach Bisheshwar Nandi, has also qualified in balance beam finals by finishing third in the qualification with a score of 11.850.</p> <p>Dipa had<strong> suffered an Anetrior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) injury</strong> after the <strong>Rio Olympics</strong> and had undergone a surgery. She was initially confident of making a comeback at the Commonwealth Games but rehabilitation took more time than expected and she missed the Gold Coast event.</p> <p>Meanwhile, Rakesh Patra missed out on a medal in men's rungs event finals as he finished fourth with a score of 13.650. <strong>Ibrahim Colak</strong> of the host country won the gold with a total score of 15.100 while <strong>Romanian Andrei Vasile </strong>(14.600) and<strong> Dutchman Yuri van Gelder </strong>(14.300) took the silver and bronze respectively.</p> <p>World Challenge Cup series is an important competition in the calendar of <strong>International Gymnastics Federation</strong>. There are six events in the World Challenge Cup series this year and this is the fourth leg of the season.</p> <p>Both <strong>Dipa </strong>and <strong>Rakesh </strong>have been included in the 10-member Indian gymnastics team for the upcoming <strong>Asian Games</strong>.</p>