CAN ONE HOPE TOKYO 2020 BE DIFFERENT ?

CAN ONE HOPE TOKYO 2020 BE DIFFERENT ?

As the curtains came down on 

 the world's greatest sports extravaganza here, India goes back with one silver medal and one bronze -- consolation prizes for a nation of 1.3 billion people amidst dashed hopes of improving on London Olympics of four years ago, when six medals were won.

In the beginning, top officials of the Indian Olympics Association (IOA) were hopeful that India would reach a double-digit in medals, an assumption which got shattered in the first few days here when athlete after athlete either did not qualify, or came up just short of a medal.

It was women power, though, which saved everyone here, and the nation, deep blushes as at one stage it appeared the Indian contingent would go home empty handed. Sakshi Malik from Haryana won the bronze medal in women's wrestling and was given the honour to be the flag-bearer at the closing ceremony. P.V. Sindhu from Hyderabad won a silver in badminton, missing the top honour after a very good fight. Gymnast Dipa Karmakar from Tripura did everyone proud when she reached within touching distance of a bronze, coming fourth in the vault event.

Another heartbreak was Aditi Ashok, who showed a rare patch of brilliance in the first two days of golf, only to end up at 41st position on the fourth, although the 18-year-old Bengaluru golfer was roundly admired and applauded for her determination and play. Lalita Babar from Maharashtra did her career best in 3000m steeplechase, though coming 10th and bettering her national record by three seconds.

The men, though, disappointed in almost everything they touched. Gold medallist Shooter Abhinav Bindra saw the bronze slip out of his hand at the last moment in a shoot-out. How is it that India failed to reach even the London tally of six, though it had sent the largest ever contingent of 117 sports persons to Rio?

Perhaps Bindra's coach Heinz Reinkemeier nailed it in his hometruth: “You send athletes from a country which doesn't have good training facilities, as they have in Europe and China, and you want a gold?” Perhaps it's not merely the lack of international training facilities. Sports need consistent support from school to Olympics which is patchy in India, at best.

A little bit of ignominy was added to the near medal drought when wrestler Narsingh Yadav was disqualified from Olympics after World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) went on appeal at the last moment against National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA)'s clean chit to him. The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) sitting in Rio slapped a four-year ban on Narsingh a day before his scheduled bout, overlooking the “conspiracy angle” in the doping test failure.

Shooter Jitu Rai belied the hopes of several officials for a medal when he ended up eighth in 10m air pistol final after playing brilliantly throughout the qualifying round. He then crashed out of 50m air pistol, perhaps misjudging the wind in the last few shots. 

Gurmeet Singh showed a bit of spirit in the 25m rapid fire pistol event, but eventually was left behind. Mairaj Ahmad Khan ended ninth in men's skeet event after missing three shots in the final round in a shoot-out. In the rarefied atmosphere of medal contenders, mistakes are not tolerated. 

Indian boxers too crashed out of Olympics with Vikas Krishan took a major pound from his Uzbek opponent in the 75kg bout. Shiva Thapa in 56kg and Manoj Kumar in 64kg too left the arena without a medal.

Yet, Rio 2016 saw great heights achieved by legends which were a treat to watch. American swimming superstar Michael Phelps achieved something which may remain unchallenged for a long time. He announced his retirement from Olympics after collecting 28 medals, including gold in 13 individual events and 10 in team races. He wrapped up six in Rio.

Several Olympic and World records were broken in Rio, raising the bar yet again in several sports.

Indian athletes may aspire to reach Olympics height, but they end up falling short. On the last day of the greatest sporting show on Earth, India's Yogeshwar Dutt lost out tamely to his Mongolian rival in the 65kg freestyle wrestling and the athletics entries came nowhere striking distance of the top finishers.

All this means that there would be a lot of soul-searching in India on why Rio was a practical failure for such a highly populated country. Can one hope that Tokyo 2020 be different?

POLE STAR OF INDIA - GYMNASTIC GIRL DIPA KARMAKAR BORN 1993 AUGUST 9 - WINS

POLE STAR OF INDIA - GYMNASTIC GIRL 

DIPA KARMAKAR BORN 1993 AUGUST 9 - WINS

Dipa Karmakar (born 9 August 1993, Agartala) is an Indian artistic gymnast who hails from Tripura.She represents India at the international circuit. She rose to recognition when she won a bronze medal at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, held at Glasgow becoming the first Indian female gymnast to do so in the history of the games.[1]

Karmakar is one of the five women that have successfully landed the very difficult Produnova vault in competition, also holding the highest score amongst all (15.100) in her attempt.[2] She also won a bronze at the Asian Gymnastics Championships and finished fifth at the 2015 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, both a first for her country. These achievements have established her as the most successful gymnast from India.[3]

In April 2016, Karmakar became the first female Indian gymnast ever to secure an Olympic berth by garnering a total score of 52.698 points.[4] Additionally, she will be the first Indian gymnast to qualify for the Olympics in 52 years.[5] She is being supported by the GoSports Foundation[6] in her endeavor to do so.

2011[edit]
In February, Karmakar competed in the 2011 National Games of India representing Tripura. She won five golds in floor, vault, all around, balance beam and uneven bars.[8] She said of her performance, "I am very happy with my performance and give this credit to my coach Biswaswar Nandi who has worked very hard for me and at the same time I worked according to his coaching. I thank sir for all of these."[9]

2014[edit]
In July, at the 2014 Commonwealth Games Karmakar won a bronze medal in the women's vault final, thanks to a vault of difficulty of 7.00. She received an overall score of 14.366.[10] This win made her the first Indian woman to win a commonwealth gymnastics medal and the second Indian, after Ashish Kumar.[11]

At a felicitation for the CWG athletes on August 8 in Delhi, Karmakar was acknowledged by India's sporting icon Sachin Tendulkar by mentioning her in his speech saying that it was a big achievement and that he was proud of her.[3]

At the 2014 Asian Games, Karmakar finished fourth in the vault final with a score of 14.200 behind Hong Un-jong, Oksana Chusovitina, and Phan Thị Hà Thanh. After the competition, Karmakar said, "See, the two top girls here are the gold and silver medalists in the Olympics while the third girl was bronze winner at the world championships. So, I'm more than happy that I gave them a good fight and finished fourth here."[12]

2015[edit]
The Artistic Gymnastics Asian Championships was held in the Japanese city of Hiroshima during July 31-August 2, 2015. Karmakar won the bronze in women's vault while finishing 8th in the balance beam event.[13]

In October 2015, Karmakar became the first ever Indian to qualify for the final stage of the 2015 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships.[14] She scored 14.900[15] in the qualification round to secure her place for the final round, where she finished 5th. In the final, she scored a total of 14.683 to rank 5th
2016[edit]

Karmakar became the first ever female gymnast from India to qualify for the Olympics when she qualified for the women's artistic gymnastics event of 2016 Summer Olympics.[16] She is the first Indian gymnast to qualify for the Olympics in 52 years.[5] On 7th August 2016, she became the first Indian Gymnast to enter the finals of the Olympics in any Gymnastic events. Her combined score of 14.850 in Vaults, which included a Produnova Vault placed her 8th in the overall standing enabling her to enter the finals of Women's vault event.[17]

Dipa Karmakar (born 9 August 1993, Agartala) is an Indian artistic gymnast who hails from Tripura.She represents India at the international circuit. 

She rose to recognition when she won a bronze medal at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, held at Glasgow becoming the first Indian female gymnast to do so in the history of the games.[1]

Karmakar is one of the five women that have successfully landed the very difficult Produnova vault in competition, also holding the highest score amongst all (15.100) in her attempt

.[2] She also won a bronze at the Asian Gymnastics Championships and finished fifth at the 2015 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, both a first for her country. These achievements have established her as the most successful gymnast from India.[3]

In April 2016, Karmakar became the first female Indian gymnast ever to secure an Olympic berth by garnering a total score of 52.698 points.[4]

 Additionally, she will be the first Indian gymnast to qualify for the Olympics in 52 years.[5] She is being supported by the GoSports Foundation[6] in her endeavor to do so.

2011[edit]
In February, Karmakar competed in the 2011 National Games of India representing Tripura. She won five golds in floor, vault, all around, balance beam and uneven bars.[8] 

She said of her performance, "I am very happy with my performance and give this credit to my coach Biswaswar Nandi who has worked very hard for me and at the same time I worked according to his coaching. I thank sir for all of these."[9]

2014[edit]
In July, at the 2014 Commonwealth Games Karmakar won a bronze medal in the women's vault final, thanks to a vault of difficulty of 7.00. She received an overall score of 14.366.[10] 

This win made her the first Indian woman to win a commonwealth gymnastics medal and the second Indian, after Ashish Kumar.[11]

At a felicitation for the CWG athletes on August 8 in Delhi, Karmakar was acknowledged by India's sporting icon Sachin Tendulkar by mentioning her in his speech saying that it was a big achievement and that he was proud of her.[3]

At the 2014 Asian Games, Karmakar finished fourth in the vault final with a score of 14.200 behind Hong Un-jong, Oksana Chusovitina, and Phan Thị Hà Thanh. After the competition, 

Karmakar said, "See, the two top girls here are the gold and silver medalists in the Olympics while the third girl was bronze winner at the world championships. So, I'm more than happy that I gave them a good fight and finished fourth here."[12]

2015[edit]

The Artistic Gymnastics Asian Championships was held in the Japanese city of Hiroshima during July 31-August 2, 2015. Karmakar won the bronze in women's vault while finishing 8th in the balance beam event.[13]

In October 2015, Karmakar became the first ever Indian to qualify for the final stage of the 2015 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships.[14] She scored 14.900[15] in the qualification round to secure her place for the final round, where she finished 5th. In the final, she scored a total of 14.683 to rank 5th

2016[edit]
Karmakar became the first ever female gymnast from India to qualify for the Olympics when she qualified for the women's artistic gymnastics event of 2016 Summer Olympics.

[16] She is the first Indian gymnast to qualify for the Olympics in 52 years.[5] 

On 7th August 2016, she became the first Indian Gymnast to enter the finals of the Olympics in any Gymnastic events. Her combined score of 14.850 in Vaults, which included a Produnova Vault placed her 8th in the overall standing enabling her to enter the finals of Women's vault event.[17]

INDIA DIPA KARMAKAR -GYMNASTIC PLAY- ONLY INDIAN DURING PAST 52 YEARS

RIO OLYMPIC 2016 - INDIA DIPA KARMAKAR -GYMNASTIC PLAY- ONLY INDIAN

DURING PAST 52  YEARS

Karmakar became the first ever female gymnast from India to qualify for the Olympics when she qualified for the women's artistic gymnastics event of 2016 Summer Olympics.^[16]She will be the first Indian gymnast to qualify for the Olympics in 52 years

Dipa Karmakar
— Gymnast —
Country represented	India
Born	9 August 1993 (age 22) Belonia, Tripura, India
Height	4 ft 11 in (150 cm)
Discipline	Women's artistic gymnastics
Level	Senior International Elite
Head coach(es)	Biswaswar Nandi
Medal record[hide] Representing  India Commonwealth Games 2014 Glasgow Vault Asian Championships 2015 Hiroshima Vault

Rio de Janeiro: 

Indian gymnast Dipa Karmakar remained in the hunt for a place in the Olympic vault finals after finishing sixth in the qualifiers in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday.

The Tripura-girl, who is the country's first woman gymnast to qualify for the Olympics, managed to perform her much-appreciated 'Produnova' vaultcleanly to secure 14.850 points after two attempts.

Dipa secured 7.000 on difficulty and 8.1 on execution in her first attempt. Her score for difficulty was a tad lower at 6.000 in the second attempt.

She landed low on her Produnova vault in the first attempt, while her second vault was a Tsuk double full twist with step to the side.

The Indian was sixth in the vault standings with two more sub-divisions to go. The top-eight, who would make the finals, would be known after all the five sub-divisions are completed.

In the other routines, 

Dipa secured 11.666 for her effort on the uneven bars, scoring low on difficulty but decent on execution. Later, Dipa scored 12.866 for her performance on the balance beam.

The floor exercise fetched Dipa a score of 12.033, which also included a 0.300 penalty.

Dipa, the first Indian woman gymnast to win a CWG medal, currently stands 27th in the all-round standings with a combined score of 51.665.

The eight gymnasts with the highest individual scores in each apparatus move on to compete for an individual event title in that apparatus.

Dipa Karmakar ended sixth in her Vault qualifiers IN RIO OLYMPIC 2016

The 24 men and 24 women with the highest combined individual totals move on to the all-around finals.