Gymnast Dipa Karmakar won’t be attempting her famous Produnova vault in the opening routine of the final on Sunday. Instead, she will be relying on the second-most trying routine in the vault — the Tsukahara or the Moon Somersault—her coach, Bishweshwar Nandi, said.
“She has been doing the Produnova well but has been faltering in the second attempt when she does the Tsukahara. I want her to therefore try the latter first so that she will put her all in it and get decent points,” Nandi told Hindustan Times.
Read more: Dipa to start with Tsukahara vault in final
The Tsukahara is a family of vaults, performed by both men and women, named after the former Japanese gymnast, Mitsuo Tsukahara. The five-time Olympic gold medallist had performed it for the first time in 1972.
A Tsukahara vault consists of a half turn off the springboard onto the vault table, then a push backwards, usually into a back salto (tucked in somersault) or layout (somersault).
Watch Mitsuo Tsukahara’s flawless attempt in 1976 Olympics:
{{/usCountry}}Watch Mitsuo Tsukahara’s flawless attempt in 1976 Olympics:
{{/usCountry}}The vault has many variations attracting different degrees of difficulty points. The highest in women’s Tsukahara is 6.7, awarded to “stretched Tsukahara” performed with a 2 ½ twist. In comparision, the Produnova has a difficulty score of 7.0.
The scoring system in gymnastics is a combination of two set of points, awarded by two types of judging panels.In vault, a ‘D-Score’ is assigned to each vault, depending upon its difficulty. An ‘E-Score’ panel consists of five judges evaluating execution; technical errors such as falls, bent arms and multiple steps etc. All gymnasts start on an ‘E-score’ of 10 before execution faults are subtracted.
The final score is the sum of the D and E scores.