Indian Grand Prix: Dutee Chand wins among a lacklustre field

The women’s 100m was a three-way race, the 200m had just two competitors and shot put had Paramjot Kaur as the lone competitor.

Dutee Chand won the 100m race clocking 11.42s at the Indian Grand Prix in Patiala on Friday.

Dutee Chand was the only high-profile name in the field and expectedly won the 100m at the Fifth Indian Grand Prix at Patiala on Friday but for the rest of the events, it was a largely forgettable affair.

The event had been advanced by the Athletics Federation of India (earlier scheduled for September 1 in Chennai) to give participants a chance to improve their performances ahead of the Inter-state championships and also provide an additional chance to qualify for World Championships but with the entry standards set low and top names missing, there was little hope of doing either.

The women’s 100m was a three-way race, the 200m had just two competitors and shot put had Paramjot Kaur as the lone competitor.

Archana shines

The high point, though, was Archana Suseendran winning the 200m in 23.18 seconds, the 3rd fastest time and person in India since 2004, behind only Hima Das and Dutee. Suseendran also won silver (11.53s) in the 100m, behind Dutee’s 11.42s win. The women’s javelin throw was called off for lack of participants.

Among the men. Murali Sreeshankar was the big name in the fray and had little trouble winning the long jump with a distance of eight metres, behind his national record of 8.20m last year and only the second time he has managed to touch the 8m-mark.

The 18-year old has been battling injury and indifferent form for a while now and would be satisfied with his outing here ahead of the Inter-state meet later this month. Inderjeet Singh managed to win the shot put with a throw of 19.51m as the performances remained in the realm of ordinary.