Indian Grand Prix athletics: Dutee, Hima Das win sprints

Hima's winning time of 23.31 seconds in her first race after a long layoff due to back injury could be seen as good performance, but it fell short of the Tokyo Olympic qualification time of 22.80 seconds.

Patiala: Assam's sprint prodigy Hima Das won the women's 200m race while Odisha's Dutee Chand dominated 100m in the second leg of the Indian Grand Prix meet at Patiala's National Institute of Sports here on Thursday.

Hima's winning time of 23.31 seconds in her first race after a long layoff due to back injury could be seen as good performance, but it fell short of the Tokyo Olympic qualification time of 22.80 seconds.

Hima, the 21-year-old 2018 world junior 400m champion and national record holder of 50.79 seconds, hasn't done well over the one-lap race since April 2019 due to lower back pain. She has now switched to shorter sprints -- 100m and 200m. She is also one of the key runners in the national women's 4x100m relay team.

Despite being an Olympic qualifier competition, there were only two runners in the 200m competition here on Thursday, with Delhi's Simrandeep Kaur taking the second spot at 24.91 seconds in the one-day competition.

The women's 100m race went on expected lines with Odisha's international sprinter Dutee winning comfortably. She clocked 11.44 seconds. She had clocked 11.51 seconds in the first leg on February 18.

Karnataka's Daneshwari A was second at 11.89 seconds, while Maharashtra's Diandra Dudley Valladares clocked 11.92 seconds for third place.

Jakarta Asian Games champion Tajinderpal Singh Toor of Punjab won the men's shot put event with a throw of 19.49m. Sahib Singh of Delhi was second at 17.69m and Amandeep Singh of Punjab was third with a throw of 16.96m.

In the men's long jump main focus was on national record holder Murali Sreeshankar of Kerala, but his best was 8.05m. His personal best is 8.20m while Olympic qualification is 8.22m.

Uttar Pradesh's Shekhar Singh was at 7.85m while Muhammed Anees of Kerala was third with a distance of 7.76m.

Uttar Pradesh's Annu Rani's gold-winning performance of 61.22m too fell short of the Tokyo Olympic qualification mark of 64m. Of the six throws, her first three were above 60m while the last three below 60m.

Sanjana Choudhary of Rajasthan was second at 53.27m and Sharmila Kumari of Haryana was third with a throw of 50.93m.

Seasoned Karnataka's runner MR Poovamma dominated the 400m race. Her winning time was 53. 60 seconds.

Kiran Pahal of Haryana came second in 54.88 secs and Subha Venkatesan of Tamil Nadu third at 55.29 seconds.