Sprinter Dutee Chand steals the show, misses Olympic qualification

New Delhi: Sprinter Dutee Chand stole the show on the opening day of the Federation Cup national athletics championships here on Thursday, breaking the national record en route to winning the 100m gold, but that wasn’t enough to hand her a Rio Olympics berth.

In fact, none of the athletes could reach the Olympics qualification mark on the first day of the meet at the Jawaharlal Nehru tracks here. The three-day championships, the first major event of the season, also serves as the qualifying event for the Games.

Dutee, who trains at the Pullela Gopichand Badminton Academy in Hyderabad alongside national athletics coach N. Ramesh, clocked 11.33 secs in the women’s 100m race to clinch the gold and erase Rachita Mistry’s 16-year-old national record of 11.38 secs.

The 20-year-old Dutee missed the Rio qualification norm of 11.32 secs by one-hundredth of a second. Her state-mate Srabani Nanda was second with 11.45secs while H.M. Jyothi of Canara Bank was third in 11.46secs in the finals.

Dutee was happy with her record-breaking performance despite all the distractions following her being banned from competitions in 2014 under world athletics governing body (IAAF)’s policy on hyperandrogenism.

“I am not disappointed. I am extremely happy, the national record is mine now. It is very early in the season, it’s the first meet and I have three more months to qualify for the Rio Olympics,” said Dutee.

Meanwhile, Orissa’s Amiya Kumar Mallick shattered the national record in the men’s 100m by clocking 10.26 secs in the semifinals. He bettered the earlier national mark of 10:30 secs set by Abdul Najeeb Qureshi in 2010. Mallick, however, failed to finish at the podium due to a hamstring pull.

In the men’s 100m, Jyotisankar Debnath of Bihar took the gold in 10.41 secs while Krishnakumar Rane (10.44secs) and Mohammad Abdul Qureshi (10.50secs) were second and third, respectively. In shot put, Tajinderpal Singh Toor took the gold with a throw of 19.93m.