Dutee Chand led Indian relay team eyes Rio berth

After setting up a national record at the Federation Cup National Athletics Championships last month, and then clinching the gold in Women’s 100m dash at the Indian Grand Prix athletics series in Patiala this month, Indian sprinter Dutee Chand has now turned her focus on a berth at the Rio Olympics. Chand is leading an Indian women's 4x100 metres relay team which is going to participate in two back-to-back Olympics qualification events - the IAAF World Challenge in Beijing and the Taiwan Open Athletics Championships in Taoyuan City, Taipei. The team left India on Tuesday.

Also Read: It’s gold for sprinter Dutee Chand at the Indian Grand Prix

The Beijing competition is scheduled for May 18, while the Taiwan Open will be held from May 19-20. The 4x100m women's relay team now has Srabani Nanda, Jyothi Hiriyur Manjunath, Merlin Kurian Joseph, Sini Sahadevan and Himashree Roy, besides Dutee. To lock a seat in the Olympics, their first focus would be clinching the Beijing match and then Taiwan Open.

On the other hand, another group of athletes including 2016 Asian Indoor Championships bronze medallist in shot put Omprakash Karhana, long jumper Ankit Sharma, shot put player Arjun and other aspirants for Rio left directly for Taoyuan City, Taipei.

Also read: Aiming for bullseye: Three archers headed for Rio

The last average qualifying time at the moment is 43.71sec for the women's 4x100m relay, and this what the relay team will be eyeing. We wish them all the best!

Feature Image Credit: Indiawest.com