New Delhi, Aug 20: Artistic Indian gymnast Dipa Karmakar arrived at the Delhi airport early this morning and was received with great enthusiasm and a grand welcome by her fans. The 23-year-old gymnast who lost the bronze in the gymnastics vault on August 14 had future plans planned and expressed her determination to win in the next Olympics. On her return, Karmakar told ANI, “I knew I could reach 7th, 8th position but had never even thought of a fourth place. I’m very happy”. Also Read - World Champion PV Sindhu Withdraws From Denmark Open 2020

Dipa has become the first Indian woman gymnast to qualify for the Olympics. Her father-figure and coach, Bisheswar Nandi urged the gymnast to consider the Produnova vault as he realized Dipa’s extraordinary courage. “Would have been even more happy if we had got a medal”, Bisheshwar Nandi,Coach of Dipa Karmakar was quoted saying. (ALSO READ: Rio Olympics 2016: Dipa Karmakar in line for Khel Ratna award after superb show in Rio, Jitu Rai also recommended) Also Read - Badminton: PV Sindhu, Kidambi Srikanth to Lead India in Thomas & Uber Cup Final; BAI Cancels Preparatory Camp

As per reports by PTI, Dipa’s success story began in 2002 when she was nine years old. The athlete became the champion in the North-East games since then. From 2007 onwards she consistently won junior and senior national titles capped by a Bronze medal winning performance in the Commonwealth Games in 2014. Between 2010 and 2014, Dipa won five National Championships, winning five gold medals each at two national games in Jharkhand and Kerala. Since 2007, Dipa bagged 77 medals, including 67 gold, in various state, national and international championships.(ALSO READ:Twitterati laud P V Sindhu, Sakshi Malik win at Olympics, send out a clear message of ‘Bharat ki Nari, Sab pe padi bhari’)

Gymnast Dipa Karmakar gets a warm welcome upon arrival at Delhi Airport (early morning visuals) #Rio2016https://t.co/mtiPfrwDAL — ANI (@ANI_news) August 20, 2016

Ace shooter Jitu Rai, was ranked third in the world in the men’s 10m air pistol and made it to the finals in Rio 2016, the other being Abhinav Bindra. Rai has won the silver medal in the 10m air pistol event at the ISSF World Cup in Baku, Azerbaijan and the gold medal at the ISSF World Cup in Bangkok in 50m pistol, as reported by PTI. After their stunning play at Rio 2016, Sports Ministry recommended Dipa Karmakar and ace shooter Jitu Rai for the prestigious Rajiv Khel Ratna Award. (ALSO READ:PV Sindhu wins silver in badminton at Rio Olympics 2016: This is how newspapers reacted to Sindhu’s historic feat)

India had a brilliant day on Thursday as two of India’s heroes scripted history at Rio 2016. Sakshi Malik, the 23-year old Indian wrestler from Haryana carved history by clinching a bronze medal in Women’s Freestyle 58 kg category on Thursday thus opening India’s winning account. Touched by Sakshi’s desire to fly in an aeroplane, Air India took an opportunity to reward the 23-year old wrestler for making India proud. Air India on Friday made Sakshi’s dream come true and felicitated her with a return business class ticket. Sakshi had mentioned in one of her statements that she wanted to be a sports person to travel in an aeroplane.

Adding to the happiness of the Indian fans, PV Sindhu clinched India’s second medal and first silver at Rio Olympics 2016. In the finals of women’s singles match, Sindhu lost to Spain’s Carolina Marin and settled for silver. The 21-year-old Hyderabadi player became the first Indian to enter badminton finals in Olympics. Golfer Aditi Ashok went through a terrible third round of eight-over 79 to drop 23 places to be tied 31st in the women’s golf event at the Rio 2016 on Friday. Aditi scored two successive three-under 68 to be tied eighth till the 36 holes but played a poor back-nine where she was bogged down by five bogeys. Aditi, the youngest woman golfer at Rio, got a bogey on the second hole before pulling things back with a birdie on the fifth, IANS reported.