Despite adopting a cautious approach on her return to competitive gymnastics following a 21-month suspension due to a doping violation, Dipa Karmakar garnered the maximum points to emerge as the number one female gymnast in the individual all-around competition in the Asian Games selection trials at the Kalinga Stadium here on Tuesday.
The 29-year-old Dipa, who had knee surgeries a few years back and trained with a tape around her right knee, did not go for high difficulty scores in vault, uneven bars, beam and floor exercises and collected a total of 47.05. Dipa was comfortably ahead of her closest competitor Pranati Das, who gathered 45.80.
Her coach Bishweshwar Nandi and wife Soma Nandi, who is Dipa’s first coach, were anxious about their ward’s fitness, but heaved a sigh of relief when she executed the Tsukahara 360 technique on the vaulting table without any issues. Subsequently, she went on to complete the rest of the routine.
