Bhubaneswar: Odisha sprinter Dutee Chand said that her Commonwealth Games (CWG) rejection four years ago made her stronger than before and also motivated her to work harder to achieve her goal.
“The year 2014 was one of the toughest phases of my life. I was dropped, by the Athletic Federation of India (AFI), from the Indian contingent just three days before the CWG because of hyperandrogenism policy and it had shattered me completely,” Dutee said Sunday on the sidelines of a send-off programme hosted by KIIT and KISS, for the Asian Games.
However, the sprinter filed a case against the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) after that incident in 2015 at the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) which she won after the IAAF issued new eligibility regulations this year for female classification for events from 400m to the mile, excluding the 100m and 200m events which she participates in.
I was mentally depressed after being dropped from 2014 CWG contingent. I’ve never thought of representing India at the highest level. Now, I’m happy that I made it possible
Dutee Chand
Dutee also stated that she is extremely happy to have qualified for her maiden Asian Games after so much of struggle and negative surroundings.
“That time I was mentally depressed and I have never thought that I will be again representing India at the highest level. I am happy to cut short all of these and hope for a podium in Indonesia,” the 22-year-old sprinter added.
Speaking about her preparations for the Games, Dutee said that she is training three times a day and is following her coach Nagpuri Ramesh’s instructions carefully and will try her best to better her timing of 11.24 seconds.
Ramesh exuded confident on Dutee’s medal hopes, but said that their focus will be to better her timing. “Our main focus is to better the timing and I am confident to achieve this considering our preparations,” Ramesh said.