Asian Games: Odisha’s Dutee Chand bags silver in 200m race

Bhubaneswar: Odisha-born top Indian athlete Dutee Chand won silver medal in the women’s 200m at the 18th Asian Games in Jakarta on Wednesday.

Running in lane number 3, Dutee clocked 23.20 seconds, which was faster than her qualification round timing.

Odiong Edidiong of Bahrain won the gold in 22.96 while  Wei Yongli of China took the bronze in 23.27 in a close finish.

Worth mentioning, the ace sprinter had also won a silver medal in women’s 100m dash on Sunday, which was the country’s first medal in 20 years in this event.

Also Read: Asian Games: Odisha’s Dutee Chand wins silver in 100m

 

“I dedicate my medal to all Indians. I pushed too hard in semi-finals but couldn’t push in last 10 minutes, by next competition I’ll be ready for gold,” the star sprinter told media soon after winning silver.

Odisha athlete Dutee had topped the standings in the semi-finals with a timing of 23.00 seconds — her personal best, while Odiong was second in 23.01 seconds on Tuesday.

In the final, the 22-year-old Dutee was 0.20 seconds slower than her Tuesday’s performance. Running in the third lane, Dutee started strong and in the first 3040 metres she was in the third position.

But she peaked and gave a tough fight to 21-year-old Odiong, who seemed the favourite from the start. After the 7-metre mark, it was nearly obvious that the top two positions would be taken by Odiong and Dutee respectively.

Odiong, with a long stride, never looked beatable by Dutee. The latter then just had to held off Yongli, who was pushing to the limit.

Asian Championships bronze medallist Olga Safronova, who had finished a spot ahead of Dutee in the Bhubaneswar meet in 2017, claimed the fourth spot. The Kazakh sprinter finished with a timing of 23.32.

The two medals for Dutee at this Games meant that her career had taken a completely different turn after she was barred in 2014 for high androgen levels.

The 22-year-old athlete was taking part in her first Asian Games. She was suspended by the IAAF in 2014 under its hyperandrogenism policy but she filed an appealed before the Court of Arbitration for Sports and won it.

Recently, under a revised rule of the IAAF, Dutee was left outside the purview of the hyperandrogenism policy which gave her liberty to pursue her career.