The pocket dynamo from Odisha burst onto the finish line. For a while, it looked like Dutee would trail off and this would be another one of those races.
Chand’s way to the Asian Games has been littered with hurdles, and it hasn’t been an easy Games debut for the 22-year-old. Four years ago in Incheon, the Gopalpur Express was supposed to make her debut but it didn’t happen, due to the fact that Dutee showcased signs of hyperandrogenism, displaying elevated levels of testosterone.
The International Association of Athletics Federation’s rules at the time barred Dutee from competition. This was an extremely difficult period for the sprinter, as she was subjected to gender testing.
It is impossible to state the psychological toll that it took on the young sprinter.
Patchy and inconsistent international performances
On the track, Dutee’s performances away from home were patchy and inconsistent. Perhaps due to her off-field troubles, perhaps not. Dutee failed to replicate the national record running performances in national competition on the international stage.
Chand was in a class of her own domestically, but was a wreck when she appeared at the World Championships in 2017, by her own admission. By this time, she had approached the Court for Arbitration of Sport (CAS) who had ruled in her favour. CAS had even suspended IAAF’s policy for two months to allow Dutee to participate at the World Championships.
“There is tremendous pressure on me because of the case going on in CAS. I am not being able to focus on my training because of that case,” Dutee had stated at that time. She had crashed out in the heats of the World Championships, clocking a sub-par 12.07 seconds.
Dutee had spoken about the adverse weather conditions after her race as she had done so at the Asian Athletics Championships in Bhubaneswar, where she had bagged a bronze in a sub-par field with a time of 11.52 seconds. True, it poured heavily on the Kalinga Stadium but the spark that observers had seen in the teenage Dutee was missing.
Not able to seize opportunities
The 100 metres is an event where India rarely sees medals being won. Rachita Mistry at Bangkok in 1998 was the last Indian man or woman to win an Asian Games medal in the event, a bronze.
It is at the same time, the most cut-throat and the most glamorous of events. A moment of hesitation and you are done. For many, it was Dutee’s inability to seize her opportunities that made her a fascinating, but infuriatingly inconsistent athlete. But then, there were hints to suggest that she might not have been in the best frame of mind.
“I just wanted to run and had never heard of high testosterone and all that. So for those four years I was under tremendous mental pressure and could not concentrate on my training. I didn’t take drugs or anything of that sort, it’s all natural. All human bodies are different. Natural hormones cannot be reduced or increased. Finally people understood this and I won the case,” she had said prior to the Asian Games.
Out of the national squad earlier and taunted by many, Dutee was forced to train and lodge at the Pullela Gopichand academy in Hyderabad. Her first taste of Olympic action wasn’t great, crashing out of the heats, clocking 11.69 seconds.
Ramesh Nagapuri, her coach since 2012 had said, “Somehow we are trying to patch up but it’s like a wound, it will heal up but the scars will be there.”
A fantastic final 30 metres
At the Asian Games, her first race was the perfect build-up for Dutee. She managed to win her heat in a time of 11.38 seconds, very fast for an opening race of an Asian meet.
The semi-final was the one where she stuttered and could have potentially crashed out. She was only fractionally slower than her heat but her semi-final was the paciest and a timing of 11.43 seconds was enough for her to finish third.
The final was a different affair with the fastest women of Asia present. The start wasn’t the greatest, she was out of the medal positions at the halfway point. Those who thought she was done for, couldn’t have been more wrong.
The after-burners kicked in. Dutee ran for her life, it showed on her face as she sped full-tilt for those final 30 metres to clinch the silver medal. The labour of 48 months would have to be condensed into three seconds.
She finished dead level, she shied away from having a look or presuming that she had won a medal. Replays confirmed that Dutee’s late burst had bagged her a silver. A silver in the 100 metres! The ‘Flying Chand’ had come good, the silver is hers and only hers to keep.
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