Star Indian gymnast Dipa Karmakar's Tokyo 2020 hopes take a hit
The Produnova star from Rio 2016 has a fight on her hands if she is to qualify for Tokyo 2020
A series of Olympic qualifying events have been scrapped due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, derailing the chances of Indian gymnasts, including Dipa Karmakar, qualify for the Tokyo Olympic Games.
Two World Cups have already been called off while the third one which was slated to be held in March 2021, has been postponed by the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG).
Doha (Qatar), Baku (Azerbaijan) and Cottbus (Germany) were supposed to stage three World Cups in February and March.
The Cottbus event, which was scheduled to start on February 25, has been cancelled and the one in Baku (set to start on March 4) has met the same fate. Meanwhile, the Doha World Cup has been postponed for a later date.
Karmakar's coach Bisheswar Nandi remains hopeful that the governing body will come up with fresh dates and offer athletes the required opportunity to qualify.
"A few World Cup qualifiers have been cancelled, probably FIG will give fresh dates," Nandi, a Dronacharya awardee, told PTI.
"Probably in April or May they might think of hosting the World Cups, it all depends on how things evolve and what FIG decides. We are waiting for a clearer picture to emerge," he added.
The athlete is currently in Agartala and is training in a personal capacity. She has been unlucky with injuries since her anterior crucial ligament (ACL) surgery in 2017. She was even forced to withdraw from the Doha World Cup in 2019 and hasn't competed in any international event since then.
"She has 45 points now and she needs 45 more to qualify. If the three World Cups are held and she is able to participate then we are confident of qualifying for Tokyo. She had won bronze in Germany and reached the finals at Baku, so she got 30 and 15 points respectively," Nandi said.
The coach is also hoping that the international body would work out a ranking mechanism taking into consideration past performances for qualification berths.
However, Aruna Reddy, who won a bronze medal in the Melbourne World Cup in the women's individual vault event in 2018, has given up on the Olympics and is now focussing on the World Championships in October.
"Since I didn't compete in the international events due to injury in the 2019-20 season, I don't have enough points to aspire for an Olympic berth," she said.
Karmakar shot to limelight after finishing in fourth place at Rio 2016 where she famously attempted the incredibly hard 'Produnova' technique in the women's vault event. She scored 15.066 - just 0.150 less than Swiss international Giulia Steingruber who won bronze.
In fact, Karmakar is one of the only five women who have successfully landed the Produnova. Sadly for Indian fans, it seems Karmakar has a fight on her hands if she is to try and go one better at Tokyo 2020.