Press Trust of India
New Delhi, May 11: The year-long suffering she faced following the controversial ‘gender test’ in 2014 has hurt promising sprinter Dutee Chand so much that she is still apprehensive about her future.
“I’m not able to trust anyone. I am scared that I might get trapped again. I hardly have any friends,” Dutee told reporters on the sidelines of the GAIL Indian Speedstar event here Wednesday.
“I prefer to train alone at SAI camp in Hyderabad. I don’t train at national camp at NIS Patiala. Some of the 4×400 relay members don’t like me. I am however in touch with MR Poovamma (top quarter-miler),” she added.
At the Asian Indoors in Doha in February, The Oriya girl set a national record in 60m, clocking 7.28 seconds. She also became the first Indian woman athlete to qualify for the World Indoor Meet in Portland in the United States in March, reaching the semifinals of the 60m.
“It was the most difficult phase of my life. I had no idea what to do. I had no place to train but then coach N Ramesh helped me continue training and arranged for my accommodation at Gopichand Academy in Hyderabad,” stated Dutee.
In spite of creating a new national record, Dutee is yet to qualify for the Rio Games (qualification time in 100 metres being 11.32 seconds). She clocked 11.33 seconds (NR) here while at the Patiala meet last week she finished with a time of 11.37 seconds. But even then she is confident that she will be on the flight to Rio.
“I will be travelling to China for the IAAF World Challenge in Beijing, May 18. From there I will go to the Taiwan Open International Invitational Meet, May 19-20 and Kazakhstan Open International Invitational Meet and a meet in Kyrgyzstan, both in June,” she informed.
“I have done well recently. I’m confident I will qualify for Olympics there. Here, there is lack of competition for me. But there I’m sure with better competitors around I’ll improve my timing and make the cut. Once I qualify, I can relax and concentrate on my training for Olympics,” the sprinter added.
Talking about her future goals, Dutee wants to improve her timing to sub-11 seconds. “I’m targetting the 10.99s mark and want to reach the finals of Olympics 100m sprint,” she asserted.
