File photo of Dutee Chand.
India's sprint star Dutee Chand is set to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics in both 100m and 200m events by the virtue of the World Rankings quota as the qualification cut-off period ended June 29. Dutee, who improved her national record earlier this month at Indian Grand Prix IV with 11.17 second run in the 100m but couldn't breach the Tokyo qualifying mark of 11.15 secs, saw her ranking improved to 44 in the 100m.
This, coupled with 22 spots still up for grabs in the 100m, meant she is all set to receive an invitation for the Olympics from World Athletics.
To those unaware, if an athlete fails to breach the direct qualification standards for the Olympics then the World Athletics rankings provides an alternate route to qualify. The method takes into consideration the top five performances of an athlete during the qualification period with the standard of a competition fetching more points in the ranking system.
In 200m, the 25-year-old runner posted the best timing of 23.17 seconds at the Open Nationals in Ranchi in 2019 during the last qualification period, which was earlier divided into two periods by the athletics body after the COVID-19 pandemic caused disruption to global sports calendar.
Though the qualification timing for the event was set at 22.80, Dutee's ranked being 51 in the segment meant she is eligible to grab an invitation for the remaining 15 quota spots.
Disappointment was in store for Hima Das, who shifted her focus to the sprint events from 400m months before the Olympics, as she is ranked at 108th in the 200 with her best effort in the top five is marked at 23.21secs at the Federation Cup in March. The Dhing Express was injured before her last gasp attempt for qualification at the National Inter-State in Patiala on June 26.
Among other Indians competing in 100m, Archana Suseendran (ranked 206) and Srabani Nanda (ranked 235) are too far off the mark to gain the ranking quota advantage.
