Odisha woman sprint star Dutee Chand shattered two National Records in the Indian Grand Prix-4 at Netaji Subhas National Institute of Sports (NSNIS) in Patiala today. She broke her own National Record in 100m event, clocking 11.17 seconds, bettering her previous National Record of 11.22s, which she had created in Ranchi on 11 October, 2019.

While Dutee won the 100m title, AT Dhaneshwari (Karnataka) and Himashree Roy (West Bengal) finished second and third with timings of 11.48s and 11.71s respectively. However, Dutee missed the Tokyo Olympics qualifying mark of 11.15s by 0.02s.

Earlier in the day, the Indian 4x100m women relay team, featuring Dutee Chand, Hima Das, Archana Suseendran and Dhanalakshmi too erased the National Record with a time of 43.37s. They bettered the previous National Record of 43.42s, which had been established in Almaty in Kazakhstan on 4th July, 2016. But the Indian relay team also failed to achieve the Olympic qualifying mark of 43.05s.
However, both Dutee and the 4x100m women relay team have one more and the last opportunity to qualify for Olympics at the 60th Inter State Senior Athletics Championship, which would be held at Patiala from 25 to 29 June, 2021. The qualification deadline is also June 29.

Dutee and the 4x100m women relay team also can qualify for the Tokyo Games on the basis of on the basis of world rankings. Dutee is now placed at 43rd out of 56 competitors in the Olympics. Dutee also can qualify for the 200m as she is currently in the 45th spot in the Road to Tokyo list, with 56 athletes to run in the event.

The Indian women relay team is currently at the 22nd spot in the Road to Tokyo list and will have to run below 43.05 seconds to be in top-16 to qualify for the Olympics.
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PHOTO: Dutee Chand (Centre) in action during her 100m race at the Indian GP-4 in Patiala on 21 June, 2021.