India’s Dipa Karmakar has created history by becoming the first Indian to qualify for the apparatus finals of artistic Gymnastics at the Rio 2016 Olympics. She became the first Indian gymnast to enter the final on her debut at the quadrennial multi-discipline games when she finished eighth in the qualifying round.

• The first woman from the country to feature in the lineup of gymnasts at the Olympics, Karmakar succeeded in performing the difficult ‘Prudunova’ routine to secure 14.850 points after two attempts, but had to undergo a nervous wait for hours to find out that she had made the final after all other groups of gymnasts had completed their routines.
• Karmakar, who hails from Tripura, finished eighth in the qualification event of the Vaults and scored 14.850 to qualify. She could not repeat her performance in three other events, namely uneven bars, balancing beam and floor exercise. Though Karmakar was sixth before the final round, a strong performance from Canada saw her slip to eight but that was the last position to qualify.
• In a total of five subdivisions, the gymnasts tried to qualify by finishing in top eight. After three subdivisions, Karmakar was sixth and her qualification depended on performances from gymnasts from USA, Japan, Canada and Russia. But that was just about enough to secure her a place in the finals scheduled for August 14 as the top-8 made the cut for the medal round.