Dutee Chand wants a medal at Tokyo as tribute to Milkha Singh

KENDRAPARA:  India’s fastest woman Dutee Chand wants a spot in the Tokyo Olympic Games and a medal too which she believes would be the real tribute to legendary Milkha Singh who passed away on Friday night.

The sprint queen fondly reminisced her meeting with the Flying Sikh at New Delhi in 2019. “I was awarded BBC Indian Sportswoman of the year and met Milkha Singh Sir. I touched his feet and he blessed me,” Dutee told TNIE from Patiala where is training. “When I came to know the passing of Milkha Singh Sir I was shocked. His legacy will live on”, added Dutee.

She said, Milkha Singh’s last wish was to see an Olympic medal by an Indian athlete. “It would be a great tribute to him if I win any medal in the Tokyo Games as India has never won a medal in the track and field discipline in the Olympics,” she said. 

In the 1960 Rome Olympics, Milkha Singh finished fourth - by a photo finish - to Malcolm Spence of South Africa who won the bronze medal in 400m race. Similarly, the legendary PT Usha missed out on an Olympic medal at Los Angeles in 1984 as Cristieana Cojocaru won bronze medal in 400m hurdles.

Dutee said, she is working hard under the watchful eyes of his coach at the Netaji Subhas National Institute of Sports, Patiala to reach the qualification timing of 11.15 seconds during the coming Indian Grand Prix 4 on June 21 at Patiala. 

It would be followed by the National Inter-State Championships from June 25-29 in Patiala. “I expect to qualify as my world ranking is 42 which is within the stipulated number of 56 sprinters eligible to compete in the women’s 100m dash at the Tokyo Olympics,” said Dutee.

Milkha and his Cuttack records
Legendary sprinter Milkha Singh had a sweet memory of Odisha. In 1958, he set records in the 200m and 400m in the National Games of India in Cuttack. In his autobiography “The Race of My Life” he wrote “1958 was a glorious one for me, one that I firmly believe was the year of my destiny. My coach was an American called Dr Howard who taught me an advanced technique of taking a start. Once again, there was the usual cyclone of events.

My demanding routine had brought the expected results and I was a running machine, breaking the records I had set the previous year - clocking 46.2 seconds for 400 m and 21.2 seconds for 200m - at the National Games held at the Barabati Stadium in Cuttack. Seemingly, I had broken the previous Asian record in 400m but I found my new record hard to believe and requested the National Games organising committee to measure the track again. They did so and I was assured that my timings were correct.”