Press Trust of India
Kolkata, Sept 19: Orissa sprinter Duttee Chand may head to Chula Vista high performance training centre in the United States in her bid to make the cut for Rio Olympics 2016.
The 19-year-old sprinter completed a treble Saturday at the National Open Athletics Meet here by winning the 200m and 4x100m relay gold in addition to her 100m dash title earlier.
Dutee, running in her second meet after winning the gender case at the Court of Arbitration for Sport, later said that she had spoken to sports minister Sarbananda Sonowal who has assured her of three months foreign training to achieve the Olympic qualification mark.
“I told him (the sports minister) that I need a minimum of three months’ foreign training to achieve 23.20s (the qualification standard for Rio 2016) in 200m. I told him I would like to go to Chula Vista and he has promised me to send there,” Dutee told reporters.
Dutee, who has a personal best of 23.56s (Junior Asian Championships in Taipei), clocked 23.69 seconds Saturday to beat her statemate Srabani Nanda for the gold medal in 200m, an event where she has the best chance to make the cut.
“I was off practice for about six months (because of the gender row) and due to that I don’t have much endurance and stamina, the two most important things needed to peak in the 200m. But I’ll improve by rigorous training,” a confident Dutee added.
Dutee’s coach Nagapuri Ramesh is confident that Dutee can go under 23 minutes if given a foreign training stint. “Dutee had improved from 23.76 seconds (Asian Championships at Pune, 2013) to 23.56 in one year. And despite the turmoil and off practice she could clock her best time of the year,” Ramesh said.
