Indian sprinter Dutee Chand's persistent toil has finally borne fruit. The 20-year-old sealed another berth for the country in the Rio Olympics 2016 on Saturday. The girl form Odisha clocked 11.30 seconds in the 100m heats in an athletics event in Almaty, Kazakhstan, beating the Olympics qualification mark of 11.32 seconds.
Dutee worked hard and finally got what she deserved. She won a gold medal in the Federation Cup National Athletics Championships in New Delhi in April, but missed out on a Rio Olympics qualification time by one-hundredth of a second. The 20-year-old also broke a national record in the event, but missed out booking a quota place for India in the 2016 Olympics.
Again, earlier this month, Dutee clocked 11.47 seconds in the 100m event at an international meet in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, to finish with silver, but falling well short of the Olympic qualification norm of 11.32 seconds.
Dutee insisted that she would seal the Olympics berth on many occasions, and on Saturday, her confidence, belief and skills made it finally happen. She becomes the first Indian woman sprinter since PT Usha in 1980 to qualify for the 100m sprint event in Olympics
Sports fans on Twitter congratulated the Odisha girl on the feat:
