The Cottbus World Cup is currently being held in Germany. The last two days have been qualification competitions for all the different events for men and women. There is a significant Indian representation at the competition, where top gymnasts from the country like Dipa Karmakar and Aruna Reddy on the women’s side and Rakesh Patra and Ashish Kumar on the men’s side, plan to compete.
The field for the World Cup is more competitive than ever before, considering the new FIG rules that now allow gymnasts to fight for an Olympic spot via the Apparatus World Cup route, of which Cottbus is the first one.
During the qualification round, Dipa Karmakar successfully performed her two vaults and comfortably qualified for finals in sixth place. The others put in their top efforts, with Rakesh Patra performing rings, but was unable to qualify finishing in 14th place on the event. Ashish Kumar performed floor but ended up only in 24th place.
Unfortunately, Aruna Reddy attempted her new vault but it did not go as planned and she injured herself on the first vault, and as a result could not complete the competition.
The second day of qualifications included beam for Dipa Karmakar and Parallel Bars for Rakesh Patra and vault for Ashish Kumar. Despite giving their best none of the athletes made the finals for their respective events.
Today, was the Vault final for women, where the pressure was on for Dipa Karmakar to medal. She did not disappoint and performed her two vaults with ease landing her a 14.316 average which was enough to win the bronze medal. This means Dipa is now awarded with 20 points to add to her Olympic Qualifications points chart, in order to make it to the Olympics.
We are extremely proud and ecstatic for Dipa and we hope she continues the success for the competitions to come!
By: Aditi Gandhi
Pictures: GFI Facebook