Dutee Chand wins gold but fails to make the CWG mark

Hyderabad: Hyderabad-based sprinter Dutee Chand emerged the fastest woman at the 22nd Federation Cup National Senior Athletics Championships on Tuesday by winning the 100 metres race.

Odisha’s Dutee, who trains under coach N. Ramesh in Hyderabad, dashed through in 11.60 seconds to grab the gold ahead of Prajna Prakash (11.81 secs) of Karnataka and Rajasthan’s Hina (11.83) at the Netaji Subhas National Institute of Sports in Patiala, Punjab.

Telangana’s Nithya Gandhe finished fourth with a time of 12.10 seconds. However, Dutee fell short of the Commonwealth Games qualifying mark of 11.15 seconds. The ongoing Federation Cup serves as the final trials for the CWG to be held from April 4 to 15 in Gold Coast, Australia. Dutee holds the national record of 11.30 seconds she set in New Delhi last year though.

Meanwhile, Kerala swept the women’s long jump event with Nayana James, Neena Pinto and Rintu Mathew taking gold, silver and bronze respectively.
Meanwhile, star javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra lived up to the expectations with career's second-best effort while Assam teenager Hima Das blazed the track to earn a Commonwealth Games ticket in the women’s 400m.

Neeraj sent the iron spear to a distance of 85.94m in his final attempt. His performance was his best after his 86.48m throw — the current world junior record — which was set in Poland in 2016 while winning gold in the Junior World Championships. This was also the best ever throw recorded on Indian soil.

Then, 18-year-old Hima stunned everyone with her performance in her debut 400m race. She clocked 51.97 seconds to go past the AFI qualification mark of 52.00 secs. GK Vijayakumari was second in 53.03 while MR Poovama was third in 53.38s.

Hima is primarily a 100m and 200m runner and this was her first competitive 400m race of her career.

Selected results
Women’s 100 metres: 1. Dutee Chand (Odisha) 11.60 secs, 2. Prajna S. Prakash (Karnataka) 11.81, 3. Hina (Rajasthan) 11.83, 4. Nithya Gandhe (Telangana) 12.10.
Women’s long jump: 1. Nayana James (Kerala) 6.51 metres, 2. Neena Pinto (Kerala) 6.28m, 3. Rintu Mathew (Kerala) 6.07m.