Olympian gymnast Dipa Karmakar has written to the Sports Authority of India (SAI) to provide her “relaxation” so that she can participate in the Hangzhou Asian Games.
Dipa, who was out of action due to injuries in 2017 and 2019 and a 21-month doping violation, returned to competitive gymnastics in the selection trials held in Bhubaneswar on July 11 and 12 and topped the trials. Dipa, in a letter dated August 5, said although she was not able to compete in the last three years due to unavoidable reasons and could not meet the criteria set by the SAI, she had been training throughout this period and was confident about her fitness.
As per the criteria set on July 10th, “In non-measurable individual sport disciplines, the sportspersons must have achieved 8th rank in the last 12 months. In sports events where rankings are not maintained or where sportspersons have not been able to improve their ranking on account of reasons like lack of exposure in international tournaments, appropriate criteria must be adopted by National Sports Federation (NSF) in consultation with Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports.”
