DIPA VAULTS TO GLORY
Never mind Dipa Karmakar. You did not get a medal at the Rio Olympics but you did the impossible. At the stroke of midnight on Independence Day, you changed India's tryst with destiny to its tryst with amazing, incredible, liberating effort. On a manic Sunday when much bigger stars from India were falling like ninepins, when the largest contingent ever to be sported by India was looking bleak and bankrupt, a 23-year-old hitherto unknown gymnast from Agartala won as no other athlete who loses a medal can or ever will. The unassuming artistic gymnast did what no one expected her to: First, she qualified for the Finals of the difficult Vault event ranked eighth on the list and then she missed a Bronze medal by a whisker — just the minutest of .15 points. After her twin vault performance, she briefly stood at the Silver medal spot with an aggregate score of 15.066 with world champion Simone Biles and Russia's Maria Paseka yet to perform. With Biles lifting the Gold (15.96