Olympics 2021 200m heats: Dutee Chand fails to leave a mark, finishes seventh
Dutee Chand failed to qualify for the semi-finals of the women's 200m event at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics after she finished seventh in the heats on Monday.
Although Dutee Chand, the fastest Indian sprinter, clocked her season-best timing of 23.85s, she was off the mark by a mile. Her timing came courtesy of her best reaction time of 0.140s. Sadly she couldn’t make use of the head start to her advantage.
Christine Mboma was the winner of the heat clocking 22.11s. In the process, she broke the Namibian national record as well. USA's Gabrielle Thomas came second with a timing of 22.20s while Niger’s Aminatou Seyni came third clocking 22.72s
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Dutee Chand, who has a personal best of 23s, finished 38th overall out of 41 competitors to bring her Tokyo Olympics 2021 campaign to a bitter end.
The first three sprinters in each heat will advance to the semi-finals and the next fastest three from all heats will join them in the last four.
Dutee Chand fails in 100m too
Earlier on Friday, Dutee Chand also failed to make any inroads into the 100m event. The Odisha-born athlete finished with a timing of 11.54 and was placed seventh. It meant she had failed to qualify for the semi-finals.
In an earlier interview with Sportskeeda, Dutee Chand said she was looking to give her best after putting in the hard yards in training. She said:
"It's my privilege to have qualified for the Tokyo Olympics 2021. 100m and 200m are the most critical races in the competition. If it was easy, then India would have a lot more participation. I have been training hard and have taken a lot of risks with the COVID-19 situation. Whatever work I've put in, I'll try and make it worth it and give my very best in Tokyo."
Dutee Chand is the first Indian woman to win a gold medal in an international competition. She achieved this mark at the 2019 Universiade games, where she clocked 11.32 in her finals.
Also read: India in Tokyo Olympics 2021 India Schedule