The pandemic has been a trying time for all athletes. Competitions cancelled, lockdowns and restrictions on practice have seen them struggling to keep a hold on their mental equilibrium.

But sprinter Dutee Chand takes it all with a pinch of salt.

“Struggles and challenges have been a part of my life ever since I can remember,” the athlete said during a virtual interaction on Wednesday.

Dutee, who has been roped in as a brand ambassador by Senco Gold and Diamonds, was speaking during the launch of the company’s new range to celebrate Pride Month and its initiatives for the LGBTQ community.

Dutee’s immediate task now is to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics, for which she is looking at the Indian Grand Prix (June 21) and the inter-state meet (June 25-29).

“I will try my best to touch the 11.15 sec standard required for Olympic qualification at the two meets. Failing which I hope to qualify on the basis of my rankings, which right now is 42 in the world.

Her preparations have been hampered by the cancellation of meets — the World Relay Championships in Poland last month, and in Kazakhstan and Kyrgzstan this month, for instance.

“You gear up for these meets and then they get cancelled which come as a blow because you have to reorganise your training schedule as well as adjust to the changes mentally.

“But challenges are a part of my life,” the national 100m champion continued. “Born in a poverty-stricken family, my first practice began on the banks of the river. Why? Because I did not have shoes and practice on riverbanks would prevent injury to my feet.”

“That is where I have worked my way up from,” said the Arjuna awardee, who in 2019 became the first from the country to win a gold medal at the Summer Universiade.

Coming back to the present, Dutee continues: “Our (4x100m) relay team could have already qualified for the Olympics had we taken part in the World Relays in Poland. All four of us (Archana Suseendran, Hima Das, S. Dhanalakshmi and Dutee) can run below 11.60 and we could have run below 43.05,” said Dutee. But that was not to be.

The athlete, who won a silver each in the 100m and 200m events in the 2018 Asian Games, is currently at the national camp at NIS Patiala where, she says, her training is going ‘perfectly’.

“I train between 6 and 10am, rest a bit in the afternoon and then train again from 6-8 pm, besides doing other workouts at the gym, swimming and lifting of weights.”

Unmoved by victory or loss, the determined 25-year-old is focused on her task at hand.