File photo of Dutee Chand
Dutee Chand on Friday broke her own 100m national record, clocking 11.22 seconds in the semifinal before winning gold in the event at the ongoing National Open Athletics Championships.
Dutee's previous record, which she held jointly with Rachita Mistry who set it in 2000, was 11.26 seconds. Dutee had set the record at the Asian Championships in Doha in April this year.
Dutee's Odisha state-mate Amiya Kumar Malik, who has been waiting the whole season to find his rhythm and that elusive gold medal, won the bragging rights as the fastest man in the National Open. He won the men's 100m in 10.46 seconds, breaking the beam a hundredth of a second ahead of Malaysia's Jonathan Anak Nyepa.
The photo-finish cameras had to identify Gurindervir Singh (Punjab) as the winner of the bronze medal by a margin of 0.0044 seconds from his teammate Harjit Singh.
But it was the manner in which Amiya Malik stormed to the finish that caught everyone's eye. For someone who had not gone under 10.50 seconds in a long while, he will cherish this drought-ending victory.
M.P. Jabir (AFI) rewrote the men's 400m hurdles meet record, winning the final in 49.41 seconds. He improved on the mark of 49.67 seconds set by Ayyasamy Dharun (Tamil Nadu) last year. Dharun, running only his third hurdles race since recovering from an injury, will be pleased to 49.50 seconds for the second place, leaving T. Santhosh Kumar (Services) in the third place.
Earlier, in a close finish, Haryana's Rahul Rohilla won the men's 20m race walking ahead of the more seasoned K. Ganapathi (AFI) and Sandeep Kumar (Services).
