Jakarta: India’s campaign in the Asian Games gymnastics ended today without a medal after Dipa Karmakar finished fifth in the women’s balance beam event final here.
Dipa, who was the fifth gymnast to perform on the beam, finished at the same spot with a score of 12.500 in the eight-woman final. She had scored 12.750 in the qualification round.
China’s Chen Yile clinched the gold with a score of 14.600 while North Korean Kim Jong Su (13.400) and Zhang Jin (13.325) of China took the silver and bronze respectively.
Considering that she was not 100 per cent fit, Dipa’s performance was not too bad. The balance beam was also not her favourite event. She could not qualify for the final in her pet event of vault in which she had finished fourth in the 2016 Rio Olympics. Her old knee injury flared up during the vault qualification round as she finished behind compatriots Aruna Budda Reddy and Pranati Nayak. Dipa also had pulled out of the women’s team final, in which India had finished seventh.
India thus failed yet again to win a medal in the Asian Games. The country has won just one medal in gymnastics in the history of Asian Games, when Ashish Kumar clinched a bronze in the 2010 Asiad in floor exercise. Aruna and Pranati had finished in seventh and eighth positions respectively in the women’s individual vault event final. The men’s gymnasts failed to make a mark as none of the four, including Ashish, could make it to any individual apparatus final. India also failed to qualify for the men’s team event final as it finished ninth in the qualification round.
