A 'no' changed her life

A 'no' changed her life

Sometimes, a 'no' can change lives. Lives of those who say it and of those to whom it is said. A classic case is Dutee Chand’s, the promising 17-year-old girl from Odisha, who reached the 100m finals of World Youth Championship in Ukraine, thereby becoming the first Indian sprinter to reach the final of the biennial event. 

Back to the ‘no’ part. Hearing about Dutee’s performance at the junior level, NIS Patiala coaches N Ramesh and Parminder Singh requested her sister Saraswathi Chand, also a national athlete, to bring her to the camp. But financially burdened as they were, her reply was a blunt ‘no’.

But the coaches weren’t to take ‘no’ for an answer and persuaded her to take the girl to Patiala, where they made arrangements for her to stay as a paying guest. They bore her expenses initially before she was selected to the camp two month later.

This, though, seems like just a prologue to what promises to be a gripping narrative. The girl from Gopalpur is quite a prodigy, as was discovered when she won triple gold (100m, 200m, and 400m) in the Junior Nationals in Lucknow. She also snared a junior national record in 200m (24.21s).

But she strode into the collective consciousness of the national athletic fraternity in the recent Inter-State meet in Chennai, where she came second in 200m and secured a berth for the Asian Championship in Pune. She duly optimised the opportunity and eked out bronze with a personal best of 23.75 sec.

Returning from Ukraine after the World Youth Championship where she finished sixth in 100m (11.62 sec), Dutee said her immediate target is the Junior Asian Games in China where she will appear in both the sprint events. “After Pune there was not much gap for the Ukraine event. In the 100m, I had a good run up to 80 m but faltered in the last 20. The food and the climate was alien to me and that affected my performance. Anyway, I am training hard and will try my best in China,” Dutee told TNIE from Patiala. She is also pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration.

Given her achievements in such a short time, the athletic fraternity expects a lot from Dutee. Her idol and the legendary PT Usha felt Dutee reminded her of her younger days. Many coaches reckon Dutee, 153cm tall and weighing 45kg, is perfect for 200m. “Though she is 17, her maturity belies her age. The frequency of her run and her elasticity makes her stand apart. Only once in a while do we get this sort of talent,” said coach N Ramesh.

While a ‘no’ has changed Dutee’s life, it has altered the lives of her coaches, too. It has prompted the coaches to explore the rural belts of the country to scout for talent. “We have decided to go to rural parts of the country in search of talent. I myself want to go to Odisha where I can scout for freshers during state level meets. Dutee’s performance has spurred us on and we are ready to leave our comfort zones to fulfill our aim,” Ramesh said. Yes, a ‘no’ at the right time has truly changed many a lives.

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