Dutee Chand aiming to make 100m finals in Doha

Dutee Chand could not touch the Doha World Championships qualification mark of 11.24s

New Delhi: India's fastest woman Dutee Chand has set herself a target of reaching the finals of the women's 100m dash at the World Championships starting in Doha on September 27 with a personal best timing. Dutee is determined to make amends after her disappointing performance in the last edition of the event in London two years ago. "I hope to run my best in Doha. I couldn't reach the semis last time. I'm hoping to reach the finals this time. It will not be easy but I'll be very happy if I do that," said Dutee, who ran a disappointing 12.07 seconds in the heats and failed to qualify for the semis at the 2017 London World Championships.

She could not touch the Doha World Championships qualification mark of 11.24s but her personal best of 11.26s, which is also the national record, during the Asian Championships in Doha in April, ensured her participation. "I am training at night these days, around 7 to 8pm, to adjust to my race timings in Doha and my preparations are going well," said the Odisha athlete.

Dutee, 23, who became the first Indian to win a 100m gold in a global event during the World University Games in July, has been training with her coach N Ramesh at Bubaneswar's Kalinga Stadium. In Doha, she will run in the women's 100m heats on September 28 at 4:30pm local time (7pm Indian time).

She, however, is not hoping to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics from the World Championships — for which the qualification standard is a tough 11.15 seconds. "It is the end of the season and I have run a lot of races this year. So, I have to see how far I can push my body to run faster. It will be difficult to run that mark [11.15]. It is not only for me but for other athletes also. I am not running any more competitive races and I have to try next year for the Olympics qualification," Dutee concluded.

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