There was none to push Dutee Chand. In fact, the quality of the competition at the two-day Taiwan Athletics Open, which began at the Taoyuan City on Thursday, was far below Indian standards in many of the events.
With that being the situation, national record holder Dutee raced to a comfortable victory in the women’s 100m in 11.50s but was much behind the Rio Olympics qualification standard of 11.32s that she is desperately chasing.
Dutee was also the fastest girl in the heats in 11.68s.
Dutee had guided the Indian team to the national 4x100m relay record at the IAAF World Challenge meet in Beijing on Wednesday but strangely, she found her name vanishing from the start list just before the individual 100m in the Chinese capital.
The top five finishers in Beijing on Wednesday had clocked faster timings than the Rio standard and that is the sort of competition that Dutee needs now.
Meanwhile, Ankit Sharma easily won the men’s long jump gold with 7.67m despite producing just two legal jumps. Another Indian, Yugant Shekar Singh, failed to progress after a best of 7.16m in the preliminary round.
The Olympics entry standard in the men’s long jump is 8.15m, a distance which is much better than the national record.
In Claremont, US, Asian Games women’s discus throw champion Seema Antil came up with a season best of 60.80m effort on Sunday to come close to the Rio Olympics qualification standard of 61.
The results: Taiwan Open: Men, long jump: 1. Ankit Sharma (Ind) 7.67m, Ming Tai Chan (HK) 7.59, 3. Jing-Xuan Lin (Tpe) 7.57. Yugant Shekar Singh (Ind, 7.16, failed to qualify for final).
Women: 100m: 1. Dutee Chand 11.50s, 2. Liao Ching-Hsien (Tpe) 11.72, 3. Siti Fatima Mohamad (Mal) 11.87.
