Odisha’s Dutee Chand bags gold at Patiala Grand Prix

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, May 6:

Odisha’s ace sprinter Dutee Chand today bagged gold in the 100 meter category at the second Indian Grand Prix held at the NS NIS Patiala stadium.

While Dutee clocked 11.37 sec to win the gold, Srabani Nanda bagged a bronze clocking 11.60 sec in the same event.

Notably, the two women athletes from Odisha have confirmed their place among the top six women sprinters of the country who will go to China to participate in the 4×100 meter relay events.

There were high expectations from Dutee who created new national record in the women’s 100 meters sprint clocking 11.33 sec on the opening day of the Federation Cup National Senior Athletics Championships. The 20-year-old smashed the 16-year-old record of Rachita Mistry (11.38 sec), but missed the 2016 Olympics qualification berth by a hundredth of a second. The Rio qualification mark for women’s 100m is 11.32 sec.

Notably, the hopefuls for the 2016 Olympic Games have got another shot at qualifying at the 2nd Indian Grand Prix athletics meet underway at Patiala.

Altogether, 18 events, 10 for men and eight for women, will be held in the second leg, which will be the third qualification competition for the 2016 Olympic Games to be held this domestic calendar so far.

Earlier, last month the season commenced with the 1st Indian GP and the Federation Cup National Championships which were both held in New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium.