Post News Network
Cuttack, May 5: Orissa athletes Dutee Chand, Srabani Nanda and Jauna Murmu will keep their eyes on Rio Olympics berths when they blaze the tracks in the Indian Grand Prix-II Athletic Championships at Patiala in Punjab, Friday.
Dutee and Srabani will be in action in the 100 metres while Jauna will take part in 400 metres. Dutee and Srabani had secured gold and silver medals respectively in the 100 metres at the recently-concluded Federation Cup National Senior Athletic Championships. Dutee completed the race in 11.33 seconds while Srabani clocked 11.45 seconds.
However, Dutee could not seal a berth for Rio as the qualifying time was set as 11.32 seconds. Dutee is hopeful of good performance in the mega event despite lack of rest following continuous events.
“I’m not fully fit because of my tight schedule. Still I will try my best to complete the race within the qualifying time,” Dutee stated.
Meanwhile, Srabani is also hopeful of good performance. “I didn’t get much time for rest. However, I have prepared hard and I am confident the time required to qualify for Rio,” she said.
Poor show
Orissa athletes performed poorly and failed to secure a single medal at the 14th Federation Cup National Junior Athletic Championships at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium in Bangalore,
May 3-5.
Sekunta Kullu, Latika Basra, Samsad Ara Begum and Jasmi Kisku in girls and Kamakhya Prasad Nayak, Sanjay Kumar Singh, Hari Behera and Sukadev Mohanty in boys, failed to make any impression.