New Delhi: Dipa Karmakar needs to win nothing less than a gold in the upcoming World Cups to qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, says coach Bisweswar Nandi, who is targeting a podium finish for the ace gymnast at the 2019 World Championships in Stuttgart.
Dipa made a strong start to her qualifying bid for the Tokyo Olympics by winning a bronze at the Artistic Gymnastics World Cup in Cottbus, Germany on Saturday. “I didn’t hope that she would do so well given the strong field, which had lot of medallists. But I’m satisfied with the way she performed. She had very less time to prepare for the event and she did very well. I made her cry a lot during the last few months. So very satisfied,” said Nandi.
“It is a good start but to qualify for the Olympics, she will have to win gold in the next 3-4 events of the world cup she participates in. Second or third position won’t matter,” he added. The Cottbus meet is part of an eight-event qualifying system for the 2020 Games, under which a gymnast will make the cut based on their best three scores.
The three events where Dipa might participate next are World Cups in Baku, Melbourne and Doha. Nandi said: “We haven’t decided yet which would be those events. I alone can’t take that decision. We will discuss with SAI, Sports Ministry and Gymnastic Federation of India (GFI) to take a call about the future events.