Driving Naari Programme launched in Chandigarh
Thiruvananthapuram, Remember watching Farhan Akhtar-starrer ‘Bhaag Milkha Bhaag’. In the last scene of the 2013 movie, a Pakistani coach tells Milkha that the race could well be the last of his career if he loses, and the protagonist replies that he will indeed run as if it were his last race.Milkha ran like a man on a mission and left the rest of the pack way behind to earn the legend of ‘Flying Sikh’ from none other than the Chief of the Pakistan Army, General Ayub Khan.Well, that was a movie. Cut to real life and to the Kerala University Ground in Palayam, the venue for the athletics event.Dutee Chand was preparing for the biggest and most awaited race of her career in front of a packed open stadium.
She was at her starting blocks for the 100m sprint after qualifying for the final with a new meet record of 11.75 seconds. Here the coach was not from the opposition camp, but her own trainer Ramesh N. He played a key role in her return to the track after she was barred from competing in the national and international events by the IAAF, and later allowed by the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) to participate in domestic competitions.Ramesh had said a few words to Dutee before the start of the race which pumped her up and made her restless. As the technical official fired the starting pistol, Dutee indeed ran like it was going to be the last race of his athletics career. Dutee, suspended for about six months for excessive hyperandrogenism, clocked a new Games record (11.76 seconds) to clinch her first gold medal in a major competition after returning from the ban.The 19-year-old Odisha girl looked determined from the start as she upped the ante after 30 metres and put all her training and energy into the race to edge past Kerala’s V Santhini (11.84s) and Maharashtra’s Rashmi Shregar (11.87s), who settled for silver and bronze respectively.“I can’t thank my god enough. I am feeling so relaxed as if I have won some Olympic medal. This was one of the most important races of my life. I was away from the track for seven months, and to come back and win the gold medal, it’s an amazing feeling. Ramesh sir had told me to approach the track like it’s my last race. I followed his instruction and put all my energy into the competition,” Dutee said after her victory.Dutee said she had never thought of making a return to the track after the IAAF’s decision. “I thought my career was over and that for whole my life, people would ridicule me and call me a ladka. But, today’s win is my answer to all of them that I am a ladki and I am happy to be born like this.”Dutee hoped that her win on Wednesday would help her in presenting a strong case before the CAS panel.
It was not only Dutee who made a return to the competition after serving a ban.Haryana’s Dharambir, who returned to the Games after serving a two-year suspension for a doping offence in 2012, clocked the fastest timing in the 100m final to clinch the gold in 10.46 secs. The Haryana sprinter was suspended for skipping a dope test during the national inter-state championships in Hyderabad in 2012 and later disqualified in the same year for doping at the Chennai Open Nationals, where he won the 200m gold. Dharambir surged past Maharashtra’s Krishna Kumar Rane (silver, 11.64s), who was leading the race till the halfway stage, and Odisha lad Amiya Kumar Mallick (bronze, 11.64s) to grab the yellow metal.In the long jump competition, Punjab’s Bhumika Thakur settled for bronze with a jump of 6.23m. In the women 400m sprint, Haryana’s Nirmala Sheoran won the bronze.
