Indian gymnast Dipa Karmakar makes history

Tashkent, May 26

Top gymnast Dipa Karmakar today became the first Indian to win a gold medal in the Asian Senior Championships as she clinched the yellow metal in the women’s vault event here. The 30-year-old Dipa secured an average of 13.566 in the vault final on the last day of competitions.

Dipa, who had finished fourth in the vault final at the 2016 Rio Olympics, had won a bronze medal in the same event in the 2015 edition. Ashish Kumar had won a bronze medal in individual floor exercise in the 2015 edition. Pranati Nayak had also bagged bronze medals in the vault event in the 2019 and 2022 editions.

However, Dipa, who returned to action last year after a 21-month suspension for a doping offence, is out of contention for the Paris Olympics. She finished 16th in the all-round category with a score of 46.166. The Asian Championship was the final Olympics qualifier. — PTI

Deepika returns empty-handed from World Cup

Yecheon (South Korea): Deepika Kumari fell short of a successive World Cup medal in her international comeback after becoming a mother, losing to world No. 2 Lim Sihyeon and No. 3 Alejandra Valencia here today. Indian archers returned empty-handed in the recurve category, while securing two medals (one gold and one silver) in the compound section of the World Cup Stage 2. South Korea’s Lim prevailed 28-26, 28-28, 28-27, 27-27 in the semifinal. Fighting for bronze, Deepika lost to Mexico’s Valencia 26-29, 26-28, 28-25, 27-25, 26-29.