15-Aug-2016
The hype and hoopla over a record number of six players from Odisha representing India in the Rio Olympics ended on disappointing note today as all of them came a cropper in the biggest sporting show of the earth. Among the six, sprinters Dutee Chand and Srabani Nanda crashed out from the heats, while hockey players Deep Grace Ekka, Namita Toppo, Lilima Minz and Sunita Lakra failed to guide Team India to the quarterfinals.
Dutee, the brightest star among the six and fastest woman of the country, failed to qualify the for the 100m semifinals as she finished seventh in her heat, clocking 11.69 seconds earlier on August 14. As per norms, only top two sprinters from each of the eight heats progressed to the semifinal round along with eight other fastest sprinters from all the heats. Dutee’s timing of 11.69 seconds turned out to be the second slowest in her heat. This apart, Dutee stood at 50th spot among all the 64 sprinters of eight heats. Dutee’s career best performance is 11.24 seconds and a repetition of similar timing in today’s event would have qualified her to the semifinals.
Srabani too failed to make it to the 200m semifinals after finishing 55th among 72 athletes in Round 1 at Olympic Stadium in Rio today. She clocked 23.58 seconds. The 25-year old sprinter had to finish in the top-two from her heat or had to finish as one of the six other fastest sprinters apart from the 18 athletes who had already qualified as one and two in their respective heats. Srabani took a reaction time of 0.150 seconds which saw her finish with a total timing of 23.58 seconds to finish at the sixthspot in her heat.
The Indian women hockey team put up miserable performance in Pool-B, losing four out their five matches and drew the remaining one. They started off on a modest note, holding Japan to a 2-2 draw. But thereafter, the Indians suffered four defeats in a row, going down to Great Britain 0-3, Australia 1-6, USA 0-3 and Argentina 0-5.
"I would have performed better had the event been held in the evening instead of 11 p.m. My practice time was during the evening. But the event was held at 11 p.m, which is my sleeping time," said Dutee in an audio released to the media.
The girl from Jajpur district had qualified for the Olympics by clocking 11.30 seconds to finish a 100 meter race at the XXVI International Meeting G Kosanov Memorial in Almaty, Kazakhstan in June this year. She was the first Indian woman sprinter since PT Usha in 1980 to qualify for the 100m sprint event in Olympics.
Dutee cited several reasons for her lacklustre performance, but expressed hope to do better in 2020 Tokyo Olympics. ``My timing was not good as this was my first participation in Olympics. My body became stiff due to overcast weather here since morning. Travelling for 36 hours also affected my performance,’’ said Dutee in her reaction.
``I would have performed better had the event been held in the evening instead of 11 pm. My practice time was during the evening. But the event was held at 11 pm, which is my sleeping time,’’ added Dutee. The sprinter admitted that she was nervous while on the track since it was her debut in the Olympics.
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TOP: Dutee Chand in action at the Olympic Games in Rio on August 13, 2016.
RIGHT: Srabani Nanda after her 200m heat in Rio on August 15, 2016.
