Rio de Janeiro: Dipa Karmakar, a gymnast became the first ever Indian to qualify for the Olympic Games on Sunday.

The 22-year-old, who scored a total of 52.698 points, performed well to finish ninth in the first of the four subdivisions of the women’s artistic category, at the Final Qualifier and Olympic Test Event in Rio de Janeiro.

The girl form Tripura, earned 15.066 points in the difficult Produnova, the highest in the 14 competitors. She secured 13.366 and 12.566 points in the beam and floor exercises.

Her Rio Games berth is almost assured after her strong performance, said Gymnastic officials.

International referee, Deepak Kagra, said that since Karmakar beat gymnasts from three countries, she has already qualified.

Her final rankings will be known only after completion of the event with competition in three other subdivisions going on currently.

“This Test event has participants from 33 countries and since her score is above the participants of at least three countries, she will finish in the top 30 country-wise. That is enough for her to qualify for Rio Olympics,” he said.

Karmakar who became the first Indian woman gymnast to feature in the finals of World Championships in November, had failed in clinching the Olympic berth as she had finished on fifth place. Earlier, she had created history by becoming the first woman gymnast to win a medal, a bronze, in the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2014.