"It Was Like Second Olympics For Me": Dutee Chand After Winning 100m Gold In World Universiade

Dutee Chand won the 100m sprint and became the first Indian woman track and field athlete to clinch a gold medal in the World Universiade on Wednesday. After the victory, Dutee Chand told NDTV in an interview that she has been working hard to win an international medal from last fifteen years. "Every athlete has a dream to win a medal for his or her country on an international level. I have been dreaming to win an international medal for India from last 15 years. I've won medals in Asian Games, but it was my first gold medal on world level," Dutee Chand told NDTV on Tuesday. 

"It was like second Olympics for me as the competition was as tough as Rio Olympics. Initially, I was nervous to see the best of world athletes but I put my best foot forward and won the gold medal," Dutee added.

The 23-year-old Dutee clocked 11.32 seconds to win the gold as she led the race from start to finish.

Running at lane number 4, Dutee was the first one out of the eight athletes to blast off the starting blocks and she made most of it to fend of a late challenge from Del Ponte (11.33) of Switzerland.

Lisa KwaYie of Germany took the bronze in 11.39 seconds in the race run past midnight Indian time on Tuesday.

The Odisha runner, whose national record stands at 11.24 seconds, thus became the first Indian to win a 100m gold in a global event.

She has now become only the second Indian sprinter to win a gold in a global event after Hima Das, who clinched the top spot in 400m in the World Junior Athletics Championships last year.

Dutee, who had a silver each in 100m and 200m in the 2018 Asian Games, is also only the second Indian track and field athlete to win a gold in the World Universiade. Inderjeet Singh had clinched the top spot in men's shot put event in the 2015 edition.

(With inputs from PTI)