Bhubaneswar: After Odisha’s ace sprinter Dutee Chand failed to qualify for the semifinals of the women’s 200m event in the Tokyo Olympics, her elder sister, Saraswati Chand, has expressed extreme dissatisfaction over the former’s performance.
Saraswati also slammed Dutee alleging her lack of concentration on her event despite the Odisha Government spending lakhs of rupees on her training.
In a video message on Facebook, Saraswati, a former athlete said that Dutee has disappointed everyone through her performance despite State and Central government spent cores of rupees on her training.
“In last four years, the government has spent crores of rupees on Dutee’s training and that money belongs to poor people, who paid tax. Hence Dutee is answerable before everyone as she failed to concentrate on her game,” Saraswati said.
Slamming Dutee’s coach, she said,” By wearing a half pant and blowing the whistle for the athletes in Kalinga Stadium, a coach can’t become an ideal one. Lack of practice, guidance, perseverance, and determination deprived Dutee of bringing glory for Odisha and India as well.”
“Dutee’s coach always aimed to make her an Olympian, not a champion. He thinks that participating in an international-level event is enough rather than glorifying country’s respect,” Saraswati said.
“However, Dutee misutilised the resources as she remained otherwise busy with personal works and other affairs. Dutee herself, her stopwatch coach, and her group member are responsible for her failure and they all should answer before the people of India, who hoped that Dutee will bring a medal for her country,” she further stated.
Notably, Dutee Chand starting from lane 7 finished the 200m Heat 4 last. However, she recorded her season’s best timing of 23:85. Namibian Christine Mboma won the heat followed by Gabrielle Thomas of the USA and Aminatou Seyni of Niger.
