India’s Dutee Chand finished 7th in the women’s 100m Heat 5 in Round 1 of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, on Friday. Dutee, a national record holder, qualified for Summer Games on the basis of world rankings.
Dutee was nowhere near her best as she clocked 11.54 seconds in 100m. It was well outside of her national record of 11.17 seconds, which was her season’s best. She finished 7th in heat 5 and 45th overall out of 54 competitors.
Before the start of the Games, she had admitted to the gap between her timing and that of the medal contenders and she would be looking to reach the semifinals by bettering his personal best.
While javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra booked an automatic quota for the Olympics by breaching the qualification mark, the trio of Dutee, Annu Rani and MP Jabir (hurdles), as well as the men’s 4x400m relay team made it to the Games through rankings.
Dutee finished 41 and 50 respectively in the list of 56 athletes to compete in both the 100m and 200m events, while Rani was at 18th (out of 32) and Jabir at 32nd (out of 40).
The mixed 4x400m relay team had booked an Olympic berth after reaching the final of the World Athletics Championships in 2019.
M P Jabir also brought up the rear in men’s 400m hurdles as the Indians made a disappointing start to their athletics campaign.
Earlier in the day, Avinash Sable beat his own 3000m steeplechase national record at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. He clocked 8 minutes 18.12 seconds in heat number 2 to finish seventh. However, he failed to make it to the final despite clocking a better time than the top three in another heat race of the Summer Games. He had set the record of 8:20.20 during the Federation Cup in March.
Only the top-three finishers from each heat are automatic qualifiers.
The top-three from heat number 3 ran in a slower time than him.
Fifteen athletes — the best three in each of the three heats and the next six fastest athletes across all the qualifying heats — qualify for the final. Sable ended seventh-best across all the qualifying heats and 13th overall.
