KOLKATA: Dipa Karmakar has always loved making history.

From being the first Indian gymnast to take part in Olympics in Rio in 2016 to becoming the country's first woman to win a medal in the sport in Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, 2014, she has always been an inspiration. She was also the first to win gold in
 FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Challenge Cup in 2018 in Mersin, Turkey.

And on Sunday she created history one more time as she won gold in Vault at Senior Women Artistic Gymnastics Asian Championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

Although Indian gymnasts, including Dipa, won bronze in the Asian meet four times earlier, it was the first time that an Indian finished on top of the podium.

The girl from Tripura was expectedly over the moon after accomplishing the feat.

 "I have no words to express my feelings at the moment," she said after her historic feat.

After finishing 16th in the all-round category in Tashkent with a score of 46.166 earlier on Friday, Dipa came back with a bang on Sunday to win the gold in Vault with an average score of 13.566. Silver and bronze went to North Korea's Kim Son-Hyang (13.466) and Jo Kyong-Byol (12.966) respectively.

"I went through a lot of troubles, injuries and surgeries before I could make a comeback.
 It was a lot of hard work and I couldn't have done all this without the support of my coach and family who have always supported me and stood by my side through thick and thin," she said during a brief interaction with TOI trying to keep her emotions in check.

Her first vault on Sunday was a Tsukahara 720 degree turn from a straight body and she followed it up with a straight body front somersault 360 turn.

Asked about her performance on the day, Dipa said, “I could have executed it a bit better but there were some penalties and the points were deducted.

 Irrespective of the penalties, Dipa still finished strong and coach Bishweshwar Nandi couldn't have been more proud of his pupil. "What she had to go through was highly challenging but I never gave up and neither did she," added the Dronacharya Award-winning coach.

Sadly for Dipa though, she couldn't qualify for Paris Olympics and she is still hurting from it. In the Olympic Qualification Apparatus World Cup Ranking List in Vault, she finished fourth with a total of 52 points from where only the top two gymnasts qualified.
 Asked where she fell short in those events, the 30-year-old said, "I keep giving my best and performing my vaults but it doesn't come through."

However, she still has a little hope of going to Paris as she is fourth on standby list in Vault for the Olympics.

For now though she is not thinking about it and wants to enjoy the moment with her family after returning home. "We don't know what's next for her and will only decide on it later," said coach Bishweshwar.

What's remarkable is that Dipa had made a comeback to competitive gymnastics last year after 21 months of suspension due to a doping violation and topped the trials for Asian Games.

She didn't make the cut finally though. But she did compete at the nationals early this year after a break of eight years and grabbed three medals gold in all-around, silver in vault and silver in uneven bars - in the women's competition.

It was a dominating show and Sunday's gold shows once again that she still has a lot to g in the coming days.