Dutee hopes to reach finals

New Delhi, Sept. 22: India’s fastest woman Dutee Chand has set herself a target of reaching the finals of the women’s 100m dash in the World Championships starting in Doha on September 27 with a personal best timing.

Dutee, who these days has been training at night similar to her competition schedule in Doha, said she is determined to make amends of her disappointing performance in the last edition of the event in 2017 London.

“I hope to run my best in Doha, that is my target. I could not reach the semifinals last time but I am hoping to reach the finals this time. It will not be easy but I will be really happy if I do that,” Dutee said.

In the 2017 London World Championships, Dutee ran a disappointing 12.07 second in the heats and failed to reach the semifinals.

Dutee could not touch the Doha Worlds qualification mark of 11.24 seconds but her personal best effort of 11.26 seconds, which is also the national record, during the Asian Championships in Doha in April, ensured that she was among the maximum target number of competitors for the event.

“I am training at night these days around 7pm to 8pm to adjust to my race timings in Doha and my preparations are going well. Let us see what happens in Doha,” said the 23year-old Odisha athlete.

Dutee, who became the first Indian to win a 100m gold in a global event during the World University Games in July, has been training with her coach N. Ramesh at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar.

In Doha, she will run in the women’s 100m heats on September 28. She, however, is not hoping to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics from the World Championships — for which the qualification standard is a tough 11.15 seconds. “I am not running any more competitive race and I have to try next year for Olympics qualification,” said Dutee, who has run 15 competitive races this season (3 Indian GP, 3 in Fed Cup, 3 in National Inter-State, 3 in World Universiade and 3 in Asian Championships).