Patiala: Tamil Nadu’s S Dhanalakshmi once again rose to the occasion to clinch the women’s 100m gold ahead of Dutee Chand at the Inter-State Championships on Saturday. However, none could achieve the Olympic qualification mark on the day. This is also the last Tokyo Olympics qualification event before the big event.
Dhanalakshmi clocked 11.52s ahead of Sri Lanka’s Amasha de Silva (11.59s) and Archana Suseendran (11.60s) of Tamil Nadu. Dutee, who broke her own national record (11.17s) in the preceding Indian Grand Prix IV last week, finished fourth with 11.62s.
Another favourite Hima Das couldn’t start in the final after injuring herself in the heat races, putting a cast over her Tokyo Olympics participation. Meanwhile, Dutee was also seen in discomfort while crossing the finishing line.
Despite failing to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics directly, Dutee will now be through on the basis of world rankings where she is sitting pretty well at 41st spot in the Road to Tokyo list. Fifty-six athletes will compete in the Tokyo Olympics women’s 100m race.
Hima, who is carrying a lower back injury problem for a long time, sustained a muscle pull during the women’s 100m heats. However, the extent of the injury is not known immediately. She is also unlikely to run the women’s 200m race scheduled on Sunday as well as the women’s 4x100m relays final on June 29.
Hima had missed on the women’s 200m Olympic qualifications by 0.08s at the Indian Grand Prix IV. She clocked her personal best of 20.88s which the automatic qualification mark was 20.80s. Hima’s injury is also a big blow to 4x100m women’s relay team’s qualification bid for the Tokyo Games as she is a vital member of the quartet.
The quartet also includes Dutee, Dhanalakshmi and Archana. In the men’s 100m, Gurindervir Singh of Punjab won gold with a time of 10.27s. Love Preet Singh (10.47), also from Punjab, took the silver while Odisha’s Amiya Kumar Mallick finished third (10.49s). The Olympic qualifying mark in men’s 100m is 10.05s.
