"I never expected a medal from this Olympics but to have come fourth is very creditable. In boxing, wrestling you get a bronze even when you finish fourth but not for me. It was very close to medal. After four years, my target would be gold," Dipa said brimming with confidence.
"For me this is my first Olympics. But I don't need to be disappointed I will give my best in Tokyo 2020," she said.
She said with some luck she could have got a medal.
"It's my bad luck that I missed the bronze medal by a few points. But no problem, I never expected this fourth place finish in my first Olympics.
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"I never expected a medal honestly. My first target was to better my scores in the two vaults, and I succeeded in doing that. Whatever I had learnt, I managed to perform. There's been no better score than this in the two vaults that I performed," said the girl from Agartala.
The gold went to American pre-event favourite Simone Biles (15.966) while reigning vault world champion Maria Paseka of Russia got the silver with an average of 15.253 points.
Dipa could have been in the reckoning for a medal had she not landed on her haunches in her risky 'Produnova' vault for which she is now known all over the world. Dipa landed on her feet but then sat down and lost points.
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Dipa went for the 'Tsukahara' in her first attempt in which she collected 14.866 points. She went for a difficulty level of 6 and got 8.855 for the execution.
Dipa also pointed out that to have competed at this level under her personal Indian coach Bishweshwar Nandi and without any foreign exposure was really a big achievement.
"Gymnastics is not that easy. We don't have a foreign coach, we were able to achieve this through my coach and the SAI's effort," said the gymnast who stands at four feet and 11 inches.
"Many many thanks to my fellow Indians. I could achieve this only because of their prayers and best wishes," she added.
On the comparison with Indian athletes like Milkha Singh and P T Usha who also had finished fourth, she said, "I feel I am very small, and I'm also much younger. The day I achieve a gold medal in Olympics for India, I would see myself in the same page like them."
Having missed bronze by a whisker would however earn her brickbats from her family members and coach Nandi, she admitted.
"Everyone else, like my parents and coach will be unhappy, their regret would have been much less had I finished fifth or sixth. 'But why fourth, and miss a medal, they would ask...'
Nandi said Dipa's landing could have been better.
"She went a bit deep while landing. If she landed with a perfect standing pose than a gold was there. First vault was however perfect.