Bhubaneswar: Two ace women sprinters of Odisha, Dutee Chand and Srabani Nanda, today brought pride for the state and the country after the Indian 4x100m women’s relay team led by them created a new national record clocking 43.42 seconds and qualified for the Rio Olympics at the Kazakhstan National Athletics Championships at Almaty on Monday.
As per the rules of the International Olympic Committee, only the top 16 teams of the world at the end of the qualification period on July 11 are allowed to participate in the Rio Olympic Games. In the process, the Indian women’s team managed to edge out France to become the 16th country to participate in the mega event.
The 4x100m relay team, comprising of Dutee, Srabani, HM Jyothi and Merylin Joseph broke their own national record of 44.03 seconds, which they had set in the IAAF World Challenge in Beijing in May this year.
The Indian women’s relay team won the silver medal after starting off the blocks through Joseph, who was followed by Jyothi and Nanda respectively with Dutee anchoring the finale leg.
The Indian 4x100m men’s relay team won the gold medal with a timing of 39.90 seconds. The Indian quartet was led by Jyothi Sankar, Krishna Kumar Rane, Vidya Sagar with Odisha sprinter Amiya Kumar Mallick running the last stretch.
The relay teams will now compete at the 3rd and 4th Indian Grand Prix at Sree Kanteerva Stadium in Bangalore on July 10 and July 11 respectively.