Bhubaneswar, July 7: Sprinter Dutee Chand won bronze in the Asian Athletics Championship women's 100m finals at Kalinga Stadium here today to bring India another medal in the ongoing event.
Dutee clocked 11.52 seconds to finish in third, behind Kazakh duo Viktoriya Zyabkina (11.39 seconds) and Olga Safronova (11.45 seconds). Dutee had qualified for the final round after finishing second in the semi-finals heat with a time of 11.56 seconds.
"I was expecting to perform better than this. The rain affected my performance, but I am happy to have bagged the bronze. I thank my well-wishers for supporting me," Dutee said.
However, another one of the state's medal hopes, Amiya Mallick, failed to qualify for the finals of the men's 100m after a false start.
Picture by Ashwinee Pati
Mallick is one of the five Odia athletes taking part in the championship.
Chief minister Naveen Patnaik dropped by at the stadium in the evening to witness Dutee's qualifier.
"I am thankful to the chief minister for coming to the stadium and, perhaps, he was the lucky charm I needed to enter the finals," a smiling Dutee said after the heat.
"I am hopeful of winning a medal and will try my best to secure a medal for my country," she had said.
In a related development, the Odisha Mining Corporation today announced cash prizes for athletes from the state who secure medals at the championship. It has announced Rs 7 lakh for gold, Rs 5.5 lakh for silver and Rs 2.5 lakh for bronze.
The second day of the championship brought mixed results for the home crowd. India's 4X100m relay team, which included Odia sprinter Amiya, was disqualified in the morning session. The relay team had to face disqualification after Jyotishankar Debnath and Amiya had a breakdown in communication during the passing of the baton within the specified zone. In the evening session, Amiya had a false start in the semi-final of the men's 100m, which led to his disqualification.
"We had turned up in such large numbers to encourage Dutee and Amiya. It was unfortunate that Amiya failed to qualify for the finals. But for us, Dutee stole the show," said Kartik Jena, a spectator.
Another Odia athlete, Jauna Murmu, featured in morning event and qualified to the finals of the women's 400m hurdles. Srabani Nanda and Purnima Hembram, the two other Odia athletes in the Indian contingent, will begin their campaigns tomorrow.
Despite the evening drizzle disrupting proceedings for around 20 minutes, the spectators remained glued to their seats with the hope of seeing the Indian athletes increase their medals tally. Shortly after the events resumed, India bagged two gold medals amid loud cheers from the spectators.
On the administrative front, the state government today said organising a gala on the concluding day on Sunday was not possible because of time constraint.
"As the events are scheduled to be completed by 9pm on Sunday, we will not have sufficient time to organise a gala. The concluding ceremony will be of 15 to 20 minutes. We are finalising details of the programme," said a sports department official.
