Dutee shines again, wins women's 100m dash

Odisha sprinter Dutee Chand grabbed the spotlight once again as she won the gold in women’s 100m dash with a fast timing in the second leg of Indian Grand Prix athletics series at the NIS tracks today.

Dutee crossed the finish line in 11.37 secs to win the 100m sprint race, well ahead of H M Jyothi (Canara Bank, 11.57 secs) and her state-mate Srabani Nanda (11.60 sces).

Dutee had set a national record of 11.33 secs in the Federation Cup National Athletics Championships in New Delhi last month. She had, however, missed the Rio Olympics qualification mark of 11.32secs by one-hundredth of a second.

Just like in the first leg of the Grand Prix series in New Delhi last month, which was marred by a power failure at the venue, none of the athletes could touch Rio qualification standards in the second leg here also.

ONGC runner M R Poovamma, who turned 26 yesterday, avenged her defeat to Kerala’s Anilda Thomas in the Federation Cup in 400m, clocking 52.67 secs. Anilda, who clocked 52.40s at Federation Cup, managed only 53.10s today.

In javelin throw, Annu Rani (56.77m) once again beat her Uttar Pradesh teammate Suman Devi (56.61m).

2010 Commonwealth Games discus throw gold medalist Krishna Poonia improved her season’s best to 56.02m to win the gold. Poonia will leave for United States next week for her training stint as she would look to qualify for Rio Olympics.

In the men’s events, Haryana long jumper Ankit Sharma registered a season best 7.92m ahead of his training partner Kumaravel Premkumar of Tamil Nadu, who leapt 7.80m for the second spot.

With South Asian Games gold medalist Neeraj Chopra absent due to a back pain, Shivpal Singh (IAF) proved his consistency once again by taking the gold in men’s javelin throw by registering 79.77m.

Distance runners Ajay Kumar Saroj in 1,500m (3:46.73) and G Lakshmanan in 5,000m (14:12.18) once again won their respective events comfortably.

In men’s triple jump, national record-holder Arpinder Singh was back on winning ways with a moderate 15.93m effort.

The absence of Renjith Maheswary takes away the sheen of the event, as also Mayookha Johny’s in the corresponding event for women.