Dipa’s first target is to reach Asiad finals: Coach

“I don’t want her to think of a medal from the outset. She is coming back after an injury and it won’t be easy. I want her to reach the finals. That is the first target,” Nandi said.

Returning to action after a long injury lay-off of nearly two years, Dipa clinched the gold medal in the vault event of FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Challenge Cup at Mersin, Turkey, last month. The 24-year old from Tripura showed no signs of wear and tear as she scored a 14.150 to win gold after topping the qualification round with a score of 13.400.

“I know that expectations have been heightened after her comeback gold in the Artistic Gymnastics World Challenge Cup. There will be extra pressure and you cannot avoid it. Pressure is on me as her coach, on her and the audience too. Everyone expects Dipa to win a medal whenever she is in action,” said Nandi, who saw his student miss a medal by a whisker and finish fourth in the vault event at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Recuperating from an Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) injury she picked up after the Olympics, a surgery kept Dipa out of the Commonwealth Games. Rating the Asian Games as the “second Olympics”, Nandi said he is leaving no stone unturned in preparing Dipa.

The 18th Asian Games is scheduled to be held from August 18 to September 2 in the Indonesian cities of Jakarta and Palembang. “Asian Games is like second Olympics. Simply because there are players from China, Japan, South Korea, North Korea and Uzbekistan. For us in Indian gymnastics, these countries have some of the best players and the competition is very tough.” 

 “Therefore whatever we are teaching Dipa, everything is aimed at her putting the best foot forward at the Games,” said Nandi, a Dronacharya awardee. Nandi admitted that dropping Produnova from Dipa’s arsenal was a hard call but keeping her injury in mind, they could not afford the risk. “We could not take the risk because it’s not been long since she recovered. She only started practising at full tilt after the CWG.”