BHUBANESWAR 16-Aug-2019
Unputdownable Odisha woman sprinter Dutee Chand won the 100m title in the Fifth Indian Grand Prix Athletics Meet at Netaji Subhas National Institute of Sports Patiala with a timing of 11.24 seconds today.
She, however, failed to meet the 2019 World Championship qualification mark of 11.24 seconds and the 2020 Olympic Games cut-off timing of 11.15 seconds. The Indian GP-5 Meet proved to be a mediocre competition Dutee Chand being the only high-profile name in the field.
The event was advanced by the Athletics Federation of India (earlier scheduled for September 1 in Chennai) to give participants a chance to improve their performances ahead of the Inter-State Championships and also provide an additional chance to qualify for World Championships.
For example, the womens 100m sprint was a three-way race, the 200m sprint had just two competitors and shot put had Paramjot Kaur as the lone competitor. For Dutee, the 100m title win was thus an easy affair. But her timing of 11.24s was far below her personal best 11.24s and National Record timing of 11.26s.
Dutee chose to compete in the Indian GP-5 as her plan to compete in two European Meets in Ireland and Germany on August 13 and 19 respectively did not materialise due to denial of visa.
Known for creating controversies, Dutee kicked up yet another by resorting to double standard on visa issue for the European Meets. In her own twitter account she first thanked External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, Sports Minsiter Kiren Rijiju for granting visa and then blamed Odisha Government, her employer when the visa was denied.
