Dipa Karmakar became the first Indian gymnast to win a gold medal in the Asian Championships

New Delhi, May 27 (HS). Dipa Karmakar won the gold medal in the vault event of the ongoing Asian Women's Artistic Gymnastics Championship in Tashkent on Sunday. With this, she became the first Indian gymnast to win gold in the Asian Women's Artistic Gymnastics Championship.

The 30-year-old Dipa, who was eighth in the qualification with 12.650, scored a total of 13.566 in her two attempts in the final. She was followed by two North Koreans, Kim Son Hyang (13.466, after a penalty of 0.100) and Jo Kyong Byol (12.966).

This was Dipa's second medal at the championships after a bronze (14.725) in Hiroshima in 2015. Ashish Kumar (floor exercise, bronze, Surat, 2006) and Pranati Nayak (vault, bronze in Ulaanbaatar, 2019 and Doha, 2022) are the other Indians to have won medals at the Asian Championships.

It was a remarkable performance by Dipa, who was returning from injuries, two knee surgeries and a 21-month suspension for a doping violation.