India’s Dutee Chand finished last in her women’s 200m heat at the Tokyo Olympics on Monday. Chand recorded a timing of 23.85 seconds, her season-best, to finish 8th in the heat 4.

She had qualified for the 200m on the basis of her world rankings, unable to breach the automatic entry standard of 22.80 seconds.

Namibia’s Christine Mboma topped the heat with a timing of 22.11s, which was not only her national best but also broke the Namibian national record. USA’s Gabrielle Thomas finished in 22.20 seconds to take the second spot.

The top three from each heat automatically qualify for the semifinals. The next four fastest runners also make it to the semis.

The biggest shock was that the 100m bronze medallist Shericka Jackson didn’t make it through to the semifinals. The Jamaican tried to take it easy in her heat, but eased off too much before the finish and eventually crossed the line in fourth. Her 23.26 was not enough to advance to the semifinals.

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Earlier, Chand had been knocked out of the women’s 100m competition after she finished 7th in the qualifying heats. Dutee was nowhere near her best in the 100m heat race also as she ran well outside her national record of 11.17 seconds.

She had qualified for the Olympics on the basis of world rankings, unable to breach the automatic qualification mark of 11.15 seconds.

After the 100m heat race on Friday, Dutee had tweeted: “… I am sorry as I couldn’t stand to all your expectations.”

The Odisha runner had come to Tokyo Olympics with modest ambitions of at least reaching the semifinals considering the gulf in the timings between the top performers and herself. But even that ambition eluded her.

She had qualified for the 200m on the basis of her world rankings, unable to breach the automatic entry standard of 22.80 seconds.

On June 21, Chand had set a national record in the women’s 100m event by clocking 11.17 seconds at the Indian Grand Prix-IV organised by the Athletics Federation of India in Patiala.