On return, Dutee Chand faces new hurdles
Dutee’s return is seen as a win for identity politics and activism.
Two days after being cleared to compete in international competitions, sprinter Dutee Chand is being asked to shift events and also possibly part with her trusted coach.
The Athletics Federation of India (AFI) on Wednesday has asked the Sport Authority of India to include the 20-year-old in the national camp in Patiala but has concluded that her best chance to qualify for the Rio Games is by being part of the 4×400 metre relay squad rather than her pet events – 100, 200.
If Dutee joins the national camp she will have to shift her base from Hyderabad – where she is based at the P Gopichand badminton academy and is trained by N Ramesh, her coach since early 2012 – to Patiala.
At the national camp, not only will Dutee have to recalibrate her training methods to suit the one-lap race but she will be without her coach Ramesh. Instead she will have to train under Ukraine-born Yuri Ogorodnik, suspended after the 2011 doping scandal but reappointed this year, and RS Sidhu.
Moving out of her comfort zone has left Dutee vexed. “I am ready to join the national camp but I request the AFI and SAI to also allow Ramesh sir to join me in Patiala. I am making a comeback (after the Court of Arbitration for Sport) decision and want to train with the coach who has supported me and trained me over the years, especially when I faced an uncertain future. Moreover, Ramesh sir knows exactly how my body responds to training and how to bring the best out of me. With just a year to go for the Olympics, being asked to shift events is difficult enough and on top of that I am being asked to change my coach,” Dutee said on Wednesday.
The AFI president Adille Sumariwalla, in a statement issued on Tuesday, said that Dutee’s best chance to qualify for the Rio Olympics was in the women’s 4×400 metre relay event.
A bridge too far?
“I spoke to Dutee yesterday and suggested that keeping in mind the Rio Olympics next year, she should train for the 4×400 women’s relay,” Sumariwalla said.
The AFI president also added: “Dutee can train with the women’s 4x400m relay campers under Yuri Ogorodnik. Our experts discussed the various options for Dutee’s roadmap for Rio. The qualifying marks for Rio Olympics for women’s 100m and 200m are 11.32 seconds and 23.20 seconds respectively and it may be out of her reach with just a year left since her personal bests in the two events are 11.62 seconds and 23.56 seconds respectively.”
Ramesh, however, believes that Dutee, who is currently not in peak form or fitness, as her training has been interrupted because of matters related to the CAS hearing, has the potential to meet the qualifying mark for the Rio Olympic Games in the 200 metres. “Last year, just before she was barred from competing, she clocked her personal best of 23.57 seconds in the heats at the Asian Junior Athletics (she won gold in the final). After that her training schedule was disturbed because of the controversy. If she had an uninterrupted training stint she would have qualified in the 200 metres for the Rio Olympics by now,” Ramesh said on Tuesday.
Over the next few days Dutee will have to take two important calls — about her event and where and under whom she has to train — because the AFI has adviced her to join the national camp in a week.
