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India’s two-time Olympian Dutee Chand has decided to move ahead one step at a time as the pandemic has started to disrupt the domestic calendar.
Odisha’s 25-year-old national record holder in women’s 100m dash wanted to start her 2022 season with the Asian Indoor Championship in Nur Sultan. But a spike in Omicron cases in Kazakhstan forced the organizers to postpone the continental event. The Indian sprinter won bronze at the 2016 Asian Indoor Championships.
At the domestic level, the National Cross Country in Nagaland and next month’s National Race Walking Championship in Jharkhand have been postponed due to the Omicron outbreak.
“It was sort of a setback for me as I was looking forward to competing in the 60-meter dash at the next month’s Nur Sultan Indoor competition," the Arjuna Awardee said of the change in her plans. "I have shifted my focus to outdoor competitions."
Nur Sultan was also a qualifying event for the Belgrade World Indoor Championship in March.
According to the 2019 World University champion in 100m, she has her fingers crossed as the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) is yet to officially announce a domestic track and field calendar for this year.
“Due to unprecedented situation, I am not rushing or setting up big goals for this year," the national record holder in the 100m dash said. "But I will move forward step by step."
The ace Indian sprinter hasn’t yet made up her mind on whether to concentrate on individual 100m/200m or stay on course to earn a berth for the national 4x100m relay team as well.
However, it is certain that she will certainly focus on defending her two silver medals (100m/200m) won in 2018 at the Hangzhou Asian Games in September this year. Having a personal best of 11.17 seconds set last year in Patiala, the Asian Games qualifying time of 11.20 seconds is within her reach.
“My goal will be to improve the color of the medals I won at the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games," Dutee said from her training base in Hyderabad. "But I will need at least three-four good competitions to sharpen my sprinting skills and achieve good result in September."
