According to World Athletics, the last date to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics is June 29. After this no player will get a chance to qualify
Hima Das and Dutee Chand are among the top athletes of the country
Indian fans are waiting for star players Dutee Chand and Hima Das to qualify for the Olympics. Both the players have not been able to get the ticket to Tokyo so far. World Athletics has fixed June 29 as the last date to qualify. In such a situation, the National Inter-State Championship starting in Patiala from Friday will make a last effort for these players to qualify for the Olympics.
World Athletics has placed this competition in ‘B’ grade. By getting a medal here, players can add 100 points to their ranking. In such a situation, some of the top athletes will have a chance to qualify for the Olympics by achieving the qualifying criteria or improving their ranking in this five-day event.
Due to Corona, events are being organized in Patiala instead of Bangalore
The championship will be organized under stringent COVID-19 norms. It was earlier to be held in Bengaluru but the top players are practicing at the National Institute of Sports (NIS) here and hence it was decided to organize the event here. With this, players will not have to travel to Bangalore during the pandemic.
Dutee missed out on a qualification time of 11.15 seconds in the women’s 100m race at the Indian Grand Prix 4 (IGP-4) on Monday. However, he broke his national record. Now she will try to qualify by performing better than this, although she is also close to making a place in the Tokyo Olympics on the basis of world ranking. Hima, who has been troubled by injury for a long time, clocked 20.88s in the 200m with her personal best but could not reach the qualification time of 20.80. He will have to earn a qualification time to make it to the Olympics as his world ranking is not very good.
Watch Dutee and Hima even in 4×100
Hima and Dutee are also part of the 4×100m relay team that will try to make it to the Tokyo Games. Apart from these two, Archana Susindran and S Dhanalakshmi are included in this. He set a national record in IGP-4 but his timing of 43.37 seconds was not enough to break into the top 16 on the Road to Tokyo list. For this, they will have to take at least 43.05 seconds. Indian team is currently in 20th place.
After the displeasure of the IOA, the organizers of the Tokyo Olympics changed the decision, relaxed the strict rules applicable for the Indian contingent
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