From Saurav Borah
GUWAHATI: India’s leading gymnast, Dipa Karmakar’s gold medal winning feat at the World Challenge Cup in Turkey on Sunday was a dream comeback after a career-threatening injury layoff and her coach, Bisweshwar Nandi is optimistic of a good show at the Asian Games next month.
“I am happy that she has made a wonderful comeback in what was an exposure competition as she had not taken part in any competition after the Rio Olympics because of the knee injury. But now we have to work even harder as the Asian Games will be very tough with gymnasts from countries such as China Japan and Korea taking part,” Nandi told The Shillong Times over phone from Turkey on Monday.
Dipa had scored an average of 14,150 in the vault event for the gold medal at the FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Challenge Cup at Mersin (Turkey) on Sunday.
The 24-year-old from Tripura, who had missed out on a medal by a whisker in the Rio Olympics in 2016, had undergone surgery for an anterior cruciate ligament (one of the four main ligaments of the knee) injury in April last year.
She had to opt out of the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games in April as she was not through with her rehabilitation.
In hindsight, it was a blessing in disguise as her mentor Nandi acknowledges the fact that now she has fully recovered and will be undergoing training ahead of the Asian Games in Indonesia that gets under way on August 18.
“We will reach New Delhi tomorrow morning and Dipa will be undergoing training thereafter. Not much time is there for the Asian Games but I am confident that she would be fully ready for it,” Nandi said.
Dipa had scripted history at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, becoming the first Indian woman to win a medal in gymnastics in the mega-event. She is also the first Indian female gymnast to take part in the Olympics (Rio).
On medal prospects at the upcoming Asian Games, her mentor said, “Right now I cannot predict as, like I said, the standard of Asian Games is very high (only next to Olympics). But, we are confident of a good show.”
Accolades poured in from all quarters, with the President, Prime Minister, Tripura chief minister and Union sports minister along with celebrities and sportspersons congratulating her feat and praising her successful comeback.
“We are aware of it and it is really inspiring,” said an elated Nandi.