New Delhi: Gymnast Dipa Karmakar's quest to become the first ever Indian to win a medal at World Championships ended with a couple of disappointing executions on Saturday in Glasgow.
In the Women's Vault Final of 2015 World Gymnastics Championships, the 22-year-old girl from Agartala, finished fifth in a strong field of eight gymnast, which included Individual all-round champion and last two year's silver medalist in vault, Simone Biles of USA.
Defending champion Hong Un-jong of North Korea, reigning Asian and Youth Olympics champion Wang Yan of China, 2012 London Olympics bronze medallist Maria Paseka of Russia, European champion Giulia Steingruber of Switzerland, prodigious 16-year-old British champion Ellie Downie and Alexa Moreno of Mexico made up the field.
Karmakar, who won a bronze medal in the Glasgow Commonwealth Games in the same vault last year, scored a total of 14.683 points with 15.300 coming from the first attempt with a Difficulty level of 7 for a Produnova and 14.066 from the second attempt.
But despite a strong jump and lift, her poor landing negated an otherwise strong vault. In the second attempt, she reduced the Difficulty level to 6, but failed to land properly, getting a 0.30 penalty.
After legendary Russian gymnast Yelena Produnova, after whom the vault is named, only Karmakar, Oksana Chusovitina of Uzbekistan, Yamilet Pena of Dominican Republic, and Fadwa Mahmoud of Egypt have successfully competed the Produnova.
Last week, she had become the first Indian to make it to the event finals of Vault at the World Championships after qualifying seventh with a score of 14.900 points at SSE Hydro in Glasgow.
2012 Olympic Vault bronze medallist Paseka scored 15.666 to win the gold medal, ahead of defending champion North Koran Hong, who scored 15.633. American Biles won the bronze medal, with 15.541 points. Young Briton Elissa was fourth with 14.899.
