Indian sprinter Dutee Chand defied all odds to qualify for the women’s 100 metres event at the Rio Olympics on Saturday, says a report in Hindustantimes, adding that Chand broke her own national record with a timing of 11.30 seconds in the heats at the 26th G Kosanov Memorial Meet in Almaty, Kazakhstan, to win the berth. The qualification mark for Rio was 11.32 seconds.
In the final, Dutee clocked 11.24 seconds to win silver, and shaved off 0.06 seconds from the national record she had set earlier in the day. Viktoriya Zyabkina of Kazakhstan bagged the gold with 11.15 seconds while Jasim Iman Essa of Bahrain finished with a time of 11.26 seconds.
“The achievement comes a year after the Indian sprinter successfully challenged the International Association of Athletics Federations’ policy of barring women athletes with high androgen levels. A landmark judgement by the Court of Arbitration for Sport in July 2015 had cleared the road for her to compete again,” says the HT report.
“This is the ultimate dream. I could not have asked for a better moment in my life than making it to the Rio Olympics,” a delighted Dutee told The Hindu.
“The hunt was on for this moment to be realised. The tension has been there for the past one month even as preparations were really on in right earnest. With the July 11 deadline to achieve the qualifying mark for Rio Games fast approaching, I was definitely tense before this meet in which athletes from 21 countries are participating.
“But once I was on the track, I was relaxed which was what my coach Ramesh sir kept insisting on,” says Dutee.
