Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Jun 26:

Its raining glory for Odisha athletes as one more sprinter has qualified for Rio Olympics. Srabani Nanda has booked the ticket to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil for the Olympic Games to be held in August this year.

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The ace sprinter qualified for the women’s 200 meter event by covering the distance in 23.07 seconds at the XXVI International Meeting G.Kosanov Memorial in Almaty, Kazakhstan. This comes as a double delight for the people of Odisha as another athlete Dutee Chand has already qualified for the Olympics in the 100 meter category clocking 11.30 seconds at the same event.

With this, Srabani becomes the 103rd member added to the Indian contingent for the grandest sporting event.

Also Read: Odisha sprinter Dutee qualifies for Rio Olympics

The 25-year-old athlete bettered her personal best of 23.36 seconds (heat timing) in 200 meters set during the Federation Cup athletics held last month.

Born in Kandhamal district of Odisha, the athlete specializes in 4x100 m Relay, 100 m sprint and 200m sprint events. She has represented the country at various national and international events, bringing laurels for the state as well as the nation.

Nanda has received training at the Government Sports Hostel in Odisha capital under the coaching of Nila Madhab Deo and Tarun Shaw of the Sports Authority of India (SAI). Notably, Dutee Chand has also undergone training under Deo.

It may be mentioned here that Srabani had bagged bronze medals in 100 m and 200 m events at the SAF Games held in Colombo in 2007. The succeeding year, she bagged the gold medal in the 4x100 m Relay category at the Youth Commonwealth Games in 2008. She has also won a bronze medal in the 4x100 m relay category at the Commonwealth Games in 2010. Besides, she was a member of the Indian contingent that participated in the 17th Asian Games in 2014.