Hyderabad: Dutee Chand may have qualified for the Rio Olympics via Almaty in Kazakhstan, but it’s Hyderabad hands that have been powering her dazzling runs. The Orissa athlete trains here at the Gachibowli Stadium, under Sports Authority of India coach N. Ramesh. She stays at the Pullela Gopichand Badminton Academy as part of the national camp sponsored by the Sports Authority of India.
Ramesh was understandably elated on Saturday. “Almaty was the last Olympic qualification event outside India and I am glad that Dutee has done it in the nick of time,” he told this newspaper from Kazakhstan.
This is the third Olympics for Ramesh. He was fitness coach for the Indian hockey team at Sydney 2000. In Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008 he trained 400 metres runner Satti Geetha of AP. Geetha had made the final at Athens before finishing seventh.
Ramesh worked at the National Institute of Sports in Patiala for 15 years before being sidelined in 2014. He then he took Dutee (who was dropped from the Indian side owing to IAAF’s hyperandrogenism policy) under his wing and put her through the paces. “This is a God-given journey for me,” he modestly said.
Helping hands
Ramesh recalled supporting gestures. “And a lot of people backed us in this endeavour and I am thankful to each one of them. National badminton coach Pullela Gopichand has been of great help, allowing us to use the facilities at his academy. Hyderabad District Badminton Association president V.
Chamundeswarnath too has been boosting Dutee’s confidence by presenting performance based cash awards,” he said. Earlier this year, when Dutee broke the Asian indoors 60 metres record, Chamundi and Gopi presented Dutee and Ramesh with Rs 1 lakh each, and promised Rs 5 lakh if she qualified for Rio. Dutee had shyly smiled then. On Saturday, Chamundi promised to keep his word. In fact he shifted gear. “We will present a BMW car to anyone from Telangana who wins a medal at Rio Olympics,” he announced.
