BHUBANESWAR 08-Jun-2014 119
Odisha’s Dutee Chand once again proved herself as the sprint queen of India by winning the 200m gold in the 54th National Inter-State Senior Athletics Championship, which commenced at Lucknow on June 5.
Dutee stood first with a timing of 23.72 second, her senior statemate Srabani Nanda secured the bronze medal, clocking 23.82 seconds. A five-membe Odisha squad did well by winning two gold and three bronze medals in the four-day championship.
On the penultimate day, Odisha claimed the women’s 4x100m relay gold, clocking 46.26 seconds. Purnima started the race and handed over the batton to Jauna Murmu, who passed it on Srabani for the third lap. Dutee clinched the gold by displaying superb sprint ability in the last lap.
Amiya Kumar Mallik, the lone male athlete of the Odisha squad, narrowly missed a medal in 200m sprint and finished fourth with timing of 21.57 seconds. He eventually left the championship with an injury.
On the last day of the championship, Srabani secured a broze in 100m sprint, clocking 11.59 seconds, while Purnima Hembrum claimed a bronze in heptathlon, mustering 4932 points.
