AGARTALA/GUWAHATI:
Dipa Karmakar 's home state of Tripura is in raptures over the 22-year-old gymnast's bravehart performance in
Rio
, where she narrowly
missed out on a podium finish. Agartala, the capital, is resplendent with posters and cut-outs of Dipa and on Sunday, there were prayers held at local clubs and city corners in the hours leading up to her event. A special yagna was held by Dipa's parents too. Thousands, as expected, were glued to their television sets late into the night watching Dipa perform on the vault.
For Dipa's parents, whatever tinge of regret they might have had at their daughter missing a
medal was swept away by the spontaneous outpouring of celebrations across the state. "We are overwhelmed by the greetings of Dipa's
well-wishers . We as parents take great pride in our daughter, that she could make it to Rio despite all the infrastructural constrains for the game in our state. We are a middle-class family and I never thought that she will make it to Rio," Dipa's father
Dulal Karmakar
, a former SAI weightlifting coach, said. "Compared to USA and Russia, Tripura's infrastructure for the sport is nowhere. Our daughter overcame all the odds." Dipa, incidentally, once practised in a gymnasium that got flooded during the monsoons.
Agartala's residents are far from disheartened by the fact that their gymnast came fourth. Rather, on Monday, they took to the streets celebrating her feat, and cheering the fact that Tripura had produced a gymnast of such mettle. "We do not harbour the slightest sense of dejection at Dipa not winning a medal. We are rather congratulating her because of her effort. Now people in the world know about Tripura. We are celebrating her journey from a tiny state tucked in the Northeast corner of India all the way to Rio. That's the biggest achievement for her as well as for us,"
Sauptik Chakraborty
, a student at the Agartala government medical college, said.
Krishna Keshab Roy
, a former principal of Agartala Government Law College, said, "It is because of Dipa alone that Tripura's name will be recorded in Olympics history. Many in India do not even know where Tripura is located. Dipa has put the state's name on the global arena. This is no less an achievement."
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