Patiala: Indian shot putter Tajinderpal Singh Toor broke the Olympic qualification mark twice within a span of a few minutes en route to his Tokyo Olympics berth at the Indian Grand Prix IV on Monday.
Meanwhile, it was heartbreak for Dutee Chand in the women’s 100m sprint as she finished 0.02s shy of the Tokyo Olympics mark despite breaking her own national record. She still has the Inter-State Meet on June 25 to improve her performances.
@Tajinder_Singh3 after his historic #Asian record & #Tokyo2020 qualification in an interview with AFI media@Media_SAI @KirenRijiju @Media_SAI pic.twitter.com/Cp21VtTyKX
— Athletics Federation of India (@afiindia) June 21, 2021
The 26-year-old Tajinderpal Singh Toor threw a whopping 21.49m to surpass the Olympic qualification standard of 21.10m, and ensure a safe passage to the Tokyo Games. He then again went past the Olympic mark for the second time with an effort of 21.28m.
On his way to qualifying for the Olympics, Tajinderpal also broke his own national and Asian record twice. While the previous national record was 20.92m which he himself had set in the year 2019, the Asian record was held by Sultan Abdulmajeed Al-Hebshi of Saudi Arabia with a throw of 21.13m back in the year 2009.
Meanwhile, Dutee Chand clocked 11.17s bettering her own national record of 11.22s set in 2015, at the Indian Grand Prix IV. She however missed the Olympic qualification time by 0.02 seconds.
