Jakarta: Indian gymnast Dipa Karmakar Wednesday pulled out of the artistic team finals of the ongoing Asian Games here after a career-threatening knee injury flared up again.
“…there was risk of a dangerous injury, so she could not be her best. We will give her rest from the team event but she will definitely do well in (balancing) beam finals,” Dipa’s coach Bishweswar Nandi told this agency here Wednesday. Asked if competing in beam finals will affect the knee adversely, Nandi said, “No, the landing is not hard on balancing beam.”
It’s a jerk and a two-week rest would be enough for her to recover. We just did not want to aggravate the injury
Bishweshwar Nandi – coach
A sobbing Dipa blamed it on a jerk felt during the ‘podium practice’ and insisted she will strive to make up for the lost opportunity by shining in the balancing beam finals.
Dipa, who attained global fame attempting the death-defying ‘Produnova’ vault at a stage no less than Olympics for a fourth-place finish in 2016, could not even qualify for her pet event here. “I felt jerk during podium training. I could not do my best. I had trained hard for this,” Dipa informed.
Nandi said Dipa was inconsolable after failing to qualify here for the vault finals. “She said, ‘vault is my identity, what will people say?’ I told her that it was not her fault but she was very upset. She did not have dinner last night (Tuesday) and now she is refusing to breakfast too,” Nandi informed.
Nandi also described why the injury scare had flared up again. “Monday she started feeling a jerk in her knee while landing. The surface here is hard and the one in Delhi was soft (foam) which would absorb the pressure of landing,” said Nandi. “We consulted the IOA doctor here and he advised that she should not push, otherwise it will aggravate.”