Ace sprinter Dutee Chand has her feet firmly on the ground as she gets set to compete in her second Olympics.
Well aware of how tough the competition can be in the 100 and 200 metres, Dutee is concentrating on reaching the semi-finals first.
“If I get entry, I will compete in both 100 and 200m,” the Odisha runner told The Telegraph from Patiala, where she is training.
“The competition will be very tough. My aim in Tokyo is to run below 11:10 seconds so that I can qualify for the semi-finals. If I can make it, then you never know. I can even think of winning a medal. But the completion standard is very very high.”
It is refreshing to see Dutee so focused and setting herself realistic goals. Just to keep things in perspective, Elaine Thompson of Jamaica won the 100m at the Rio Olympics with a stunning 10.71 seconds, the second-fastest winning time in the history of the women’s 100m final at the Olympics. The fastest record still belongs to Florence Griffith-Joyner, who clocked 10.62 in 1988. She also still holds the world record of 10.49 seconds, also set in 1988.
For the record, Dutee is still awaiting the final invitation from the World Athletics and the International Olympics Committee. However, that is only a matter of time since her participation is confirmed in both 100m and 200m events by virtue of the world rankings quota.
Dutee, who improved her national record earlier this month at the Indian Grand Prix IV with 11.17 seconds in the 100m but couldn’t breach the Tokyo qualifying mark of 11.15 seconds, saw her ranking improve to 44 in the 100m. Her ranking in 200m is 51. The 25-year-old’s best 200m timing is 23.17 seconds, clocked at the Open Nationals in Ranchi in 2019 during the last qualification period. Here also she could not match the qualification cut-off time of 22.80 seconds, but her ranking will ensure an invitation.
According to sources, 22 spots are available in 100m and 15 in 200m via the world ranking route.
“Though I am yet to get a formal invitation from the world athletics body, I am sure about my qualification. I am very fortunate to compete in two Olympics,” said the sprinter, who is pursuing her LLB at Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT) along with working as a senior manager in the Odisha Mining Corporation.
In 2016, Dutee qualified for the Rio Games. For India the qualification in sprint came after 36 years, since a 16-year-old PT Usha made it to the 1980 Moscow Olympics.
“I could not perform well in Rio but I had gained experience. Due to Covid-19 restrictions, I have not really been able to participate in as many international events as I would have liked. But I kept training hard,” she said.
But Dutee does have a grudge about the way some people and even sports organisations use athletes for self-promotion and fail to fulfil the promises made by them. “Once their objective is achieved they forget the promises they make to sportspersons who are left to their fate,” Dutee said.
“I still remember the day I returned from the Rio Olympics (2016). Some people took pictures with me and announced cars and cash prizes for me. But soon they forgot everything. Even sports associations in Odisha announced cash prizes for me which I am yet to receive,” Dutee said, adding that she had met some of these people a number of times to remind them of their commitments but they kept making excuses.
Dutee, the only athlete from Odisha to represent the country at two back-to-back Olympic Games, said: “These things don’t just happen to me. Many others have gone through such experiences. I still remember how I went to the office of a well-known sports administrator of Odisha to get the cash reward announced for me. They just refused to give me the money. I was shocked.”
Contacted, Odisha Athletics Association secretary, Asirbad Behera, told The Telegraph: “We will release all the money that we and other associations had announced earlier for Dutee. The money will be released before she leaves for Tokyo.”
