eNarada, Bengaluru, September 12, 2018
Dutee Chand, the ace sprinter of India in the contemporary times, with two silver Medals in her kitty in recently concluded Asian Games held in Jakarta, told the Bengaluru media today that she was looking to winning a gold in the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics.
KIIT’s star sprinter, Dutee, taking on other formidable Asian stars on the tracks of the Asiad- 2018, scripted history by clinching two Silvers in the women’s 100m and 200m races respectively, and thereby becoming the first Indian woman in 32 years to achieve this feat. Her performance in the 100m was the best ever by any Indian woman in this blue riband event of athletics.
Finishing for a Gold, Odiong Edidiong of Bahrain pipped Dutee by a mere 0.02 seconds in the 100m event, while the Indian sprinter restricted the defending champion Wei Yongli of China in a flashy finish.
With that spectacular feat, Dutee has joined the legendary P T Usha and the coveted club of Indian Athletes winning more than one medal at the Asian Games. Today she is the fastest sprinter in the whole of Asia.
Speaking to Bengaluru media for the first time, after the conclusion of the Asian Games, Dutee said that she had been excited and inspired. Winning at Asiad, she reckoned, was a major milestone in her international sporting career, and has put her back into the international competitive tracks.
Radiating an easily discernible effulgence of confidence and looking ahead in her career, she had gone on to add that she was determined to winning more medals for the country in the up-coming Olympics. She had missed the gold in 2016 Olympics by a faint second.
Dutee hails from a very poor family from Jajpur district of Odisha. She is the 3rd child among seven siblings of her parents. Her early life was full of struggle. She had faced many challenges in her childhood but was never distracted from her goal. In 2013, Prof. Samanta spotted Dutee and brought her to KIIT. Since then, he has been giving her all types of support and guides her until today. During the height of controversy relating to hyperandrogenism policy, her most painful time, Prof. Samanta gave her moral support and stood behind her. Dutee has been pursuing her education in KIIT Deemed to be University for the last five years. KIIT has been taking all care of Dutee to enable her to achieve her dream of winning the Olympic medal for the country.
In 2016, ace sprinter Dutee Chand was the first Indian female athlete to qualify for the 100m dash in Olympics in 36 years as she booked a Rio Games berth at the 26th G Kosanov Memorial Meet in Almaty, Kazakhstan. It has been an outstanding performance by the 22-year-old Dutee who missed out on competition in 2014-15 due to the IAAF hyperandrogenism policy. But she did not give up hope. She won at the International Court of Arbitration for Sports. Recently, under a revised rule of the IAAF, Dutee was left outside the purview of the hyperandrogenism policy which gave her liberty to pursue her career. Now she has been trying to erase the ghosts of the past.
Quickly adding, Dutee profusely thanked Dr. Achyuta Samanta, a leading social reformer of India and the founder of KIIT and KISS Deemed-to-be-Universities, Bhubaneswar for his unflinching support which helped her to bring this glory to her fellow compatriots.
In 2016 Rio Olympics, Dutee Chand the sprinter, was the first Indian female athlete to qualify for 100m dash in 36 years as she had secured a Rio Games berth at the 26th G Kosanov Memorial Meet in Almaty, Kazakhstan. It had been one of her most outstanding sprinting performance.
Dutee hails from a very poor family from Jajpur district of Odisha. She is the 3rd among seven siblings of her parents. Growing amidst appalling poverty in her childhood had not daunted her sporting spirit and sprinting journey.
“Prof. (Dr) Samanta has been kind to me and I am profoundly indebted to him. He is like living incarnate of God to me. I owe him all credit for my successes in the world sporting arena.” Dutee had said to the media.
Prof. Samanta, she said, had spotted her in 2013 and brought her to KIIT enabling her to avail KIIT’s excellent training facility besides helping her pursue studies at the institute. He had stood by her as she fought a legal battle against the application of hyperandrogenism policy which had nearly brought an end to her sporting career. At that she was heart-broken.
She had missed the 2014-15 competitions due to IAAF’s hyperandrogenism policy. She won at the International Court of Arbitration for Sports which had compelled IAAF to keep her out of the purview of the hyperandrogenism policy which had haunted Dutee, the winner of Bronze medal in 2017 held at Bhubaneswar, Gold medal in the Asian Junior Athletics Championship in Taipei and Bronze in the Asian Athletics Championship held in Pune.
At 17, she set records on the track. In 2013, she became the first Indian to reach the final of an international 100m event, at the IAAF World Youth Championships. Then she became the senior national champion in 100m and 200m. In 2014, Dutee won two gold medals at the Asian Junior Championships in Taipei, a first for an Indian athlete.
On her return to Bhubaneswar and to the campus of KIIT, where Dutee pursues a course in law, and KISS had given her an overwhelming reception at Airport, and later a rousing felicitation at the university. She said it made her proud to be part of KIIT and KISS family.
