India’s Dipa Karmakar performs on the floor during the All-Around final of the Artistic Gymnastics event. (AFP)
Dipa Karmakar became the first Indian woman and the second person from the country to clinch a historic Commonwealth Games medal in artistic gymnastics when she won the women’s vault bronze at the SSE Hydro here yesterday.
Ashish Kumar had won India’s maiden gymnastics medals in CWG when he scalped the men’s vault silver and men’s floor bronze four years ago in New Delhi.
England’s Claudia Fragapane won the gold with an average score of 14.633 while Canada’s Elisabeth Black took home the silver with 14.433.
Agartala-born Dipa got the bronze with an average score of 14.366. The 20-year-old had scored a mere 13.633 points in Vault 1, the lowest out of eight competitors in the final.
However, in a remarkable comeback, Dipa scored the highest in Vault 2 with 15.100 to bring up her average to 14.366.
Earlier in the day, Ashish had finished sixth in the men’s floor final where he took bronze in 2010.
With a score of 15.533 points, England’s Max Whitlock clinched the gold while Canada’s Scott Morgan (15.133) took the silver. New Zealander David Bishop (14.55) won the bronze.
The 23-year-old Ashish finished sixth out of eight competitors with a score of 13.8 points.
BABITA, YOGESHWAR WIN GOLD
Meanwhile, wrestler Babita Kumari put on a stunning show to win the gold medal beating Canada’s Brittanee Laverdure in the final of the women’s 55kg freestyle category at the SECC Hall yesterday.
The 24-year-old Babita, who had bagged the silver in the 2010 Commonwealth Games, won 9-2 against the 32-year-old Brittanee, who ended up injuring her finger during the bout.
Babita dominated most of the proceedings and it was only in the last 15 seconds that Brittanne managed to open her scoring but by then it was all over.
It was the fourth gold medal for India in wrestling.
Later, Olympic bronze medallist Yogeshwar Dutt won the fifth wrestling gold medal for India beating Jevon Balfour of Canada in the final of the men’s freestyle 65kg category.
Dutt was declared the winner on grounds of technical superiority after he took a 10-0 lead within 1.53 minutes of the first period.
Geetika Jakhar had to settle for the silver medal after she lost the women’s freestyle 63 kg final to Canada’s Danielle Lappage. The 28-year-old Geetika proved no match for the 23-year-old Danielle, who won 7-0.
KASHYAP REACHES QF
Indian shuttlers Parupalli Kashyap, RMV Gurusaidutt and PC Thulasi won their respective Round of 16 matches to enter the quarter-finals.
Men’s singles second seed Kashyap needed only 24 minutes to move past Australia’s Jeff Tho 21-7, 21-8 while fifth seed Gurusaidutt beat Andrew D’Souza 21-13, 21-9 in 27 minutes at the Emirates Arena.
Later sixth seed Thulasi defeated Canadian Rachel Honderich 21-12, 21-7 in 31 minutes to move into the women’s singles last eight.
