Dipa Karmakar pulls off Produnova to enter vault finals

The 19-year-old star American, who has a record 10 World Championship gold medals in her kitty came up to the unassuming Tripura young lady and wished her “luck” for she may have perfected the art of gymnastics but when it comes to “Produnova” it’s terrifying. That meant she had to put in a seriously improved showing in the final two series, but it was not to be.

Rio 2016 Olympics Gymnastic: Dipa’s score card clearly shown the difficulty level of the task, as she secured 7.000 and 8.1 on difficulty and execution in her first attempt.

However, the Indian had to get through anxious moments as two-third of the sub-divisions were yet to complete the vault.

The shooting contingent continues its journey as Manavjit Singh Sandhu, a former World No. 1, will be going into his fourth Olympics hoping to win a medal at last, while the higher ranked Kynan Chenai (No. 17 in the world) will be looking to make his mark in his first attempt at the Olympics.

The Russians, who had won the World Championships a year ago, will take on Italy in the semi-finals.

But the Indian challenge withered away in the shoot-out after star performer Laishram Bombayla Devi’s nerves betrayed her.

The Russians enjoyed the better start, taking the first set 55-48.

Deepika Kumari got a bit riled when a journalist asked her that had she hit the flawless score of ten, the Indian team could have won. Dipa ended 6th after pulling off the Produnova in her first attempt but had anxious moments on the edge before she was through. She had begun with a 10 in her first shot of the quarterfinal and repeated it once again in the third set, but could not match Bombayla’s three ideal 10 shots.

Elsewhere, the Indian shooters continued to produce disappointing results.

After subdivision 3 had finished, Dipa was temporarily placed sixth. After seven shots, her score progressed to 66 and eventually she closed the first series with a score of 94.

She managed to perform her much-vaunted “Produnova” vault cleanly to score 14.850 on the vault, 11.666 on the uneven bars 12.866 in balance beam and 12.033 in floor exercises.

Heena still has a chance to redeem herself in the 25-metre pistol event on August 9.