Star sprinter from Odisha Dutee Chand fails to cross the Tokyo hurdle yet again. Saturday evening in the women’s 100m final of the National Inter-State Athletics Championships in Patiala, Dutee finished fourth with a time of 11.62 seconds. Dutee had clocked 11.17 seconds in the Indian Grand Prix 4 earlier this week at the same tracks to shatter her own national record.
In Saturday's event, Tamil Nadu's S Dhanalakshmi won the 100m dash with a timing of 11.52 seconds followed by Amasha de Silva of Sri Lanka (11.59 sec) and Archana Suseendran from Tamil Nadu finishing third with a time of 11.60 seconds. Dutee failed to qualify as the qualification time is set at 11.15 seconds for next month's Tokyo Olympics.
The event on Saturday evening was considered as Dutee’s last chance to earn an automatic berth for Tokyo Olympics. However, on the basis of world rankings in women’s 100m, Dutee Chand might still have a chance of sneaking into the Tokyo Olympics, as she is sitting pretty at 41st spot in the Road to Tokyo list. As many as 56 athletes will compete in the Tokyo Olympics women's 100m race.