Tashkent, May 26: Top Indian gymnast Dipa Karmakar on Sunday became the first from the country to win a gold medal in the Asian Senior Championships as she clinched the yellow metal in the women's vault event here.
The 30-year-old Dipa secured an average of 13.566 in the vault final on the last day of competitions in Uzbekistan's capital city.
North Koreans Kim Son Hyang (13.466) and Jo Kyong Byol (12.966) grabbed the silver and bronze medals respectively.
Dipa, who had finished fourth in the vault final at the 2016 Rio Olympics, had won a bronze medal in the same event in the 2015 edition.
Ashish Kumar had a won bronze medal in individual floor exercise in 2015 Asian Championships. Pranati Nayak had also bagged a bronze each in vault event in the 2019 and 2022 editions.
Dipa, who returned to action last year after a 21-month suspension for a doping offence, is out of contention for the upcoming Paris Olympics.
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Patna, Dec 26: RJD president Lalu Prasad on Thursday slammed the BJP over alleged heckling of a woman artist who sang a bhajan, known to be a favourite of Mahatma Gandhi, at a function organised on the birth anniversary of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee a day ago.
The RJD supremo, on his X handle, alleged that the BJP leaders had taken exception to the phrase 'Sita Ram' and asked the singer to apologise before erupting in roars of "Jai Shri Ram".
The well-attended function was held on Wednesday at Bapu Sabhagar, a sprawling state-of-the-art auditorium in the heart of the city.
The septuagenarian alleged that the incident was "reflective of the misogyny that the BJP and the Sangh Parivar was known for" and its "disdain for females was resulting in disrespect for 'Sita Mata'."
However, BJP sources, who did not wish to be named, pointed out that the newspaper report shared by Prasad in an earlier tweet clearly stated that the furore was not over 'Sita Ram', but the subsequent stanza - 'Ishwar Allah Tero Naam'.
The sources claimed that party workers were opposed to the "recital of a line that was not part of the original verse composed by 15th-century poet Narsi Mehta, but inserted later, apparently in line with Gandhi's Hindu-Muslim unity plank".
संघियों और भाजपाइयों को “जय सियाराम, जय सीताराम” के नाम एवं नारे से शुरू ही नफरत है क्योंकि उसमें माता सीता का जयकारा है। ये लोग शुरू से ही महिला विरोधी है तथा “जय श्री राम’ के नारे के साथ आधी आबादी महिलाओं का भी अपमान करते हैं।
— Lalu Prasad Yadav (@laluprasadrjd) December 26, 2024
गायिका देवी ने कल कार्यक्रम में बापू के नाम पर… pic.twitter.com/fOGhxfWE16