Warm-ups taking longer, need till Feb to hit top speed: Dutee Chand

It was music to the ears of athletes when the federal government determined to permit sportspersons to begin coaching on Sunday underneath Lockdown 4.zero and sprinter Dutee Chand is not any completely different. After spending the final couple of months contained in the 4 partitions of her house, the Asian Games 100m silver medalist is again the place she belongs — the monitor on the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar. But the sprinter believes quite a bit has modified within the final couple of months.

Speaking to IANS, Dutee not solely spoke about returning to the tracks, but additionally highlighted how there’s a sense of warning all over the place. She says that everybody desires to be alert and never commit a mistake.

“Earlier everyone used to greet each other but now even the security guards are a bit scared. Whenever we touched something, they asked us to wash our hands. Never saw the gym getting cleaned so many times previously but now, they were constantly sanitizing it,” Dutee revealed.

Not simply on the stadium however Dutee can really feel adjustments in her physique as effectively which has been a results of sitting at house with none correct coaching.

“I did my warm-ups but I faced some difficulties. Earlier I used to take five minutes to complete a kilometre during warm-ups, now it took me seven minutes,” she stated.

“I did my practice and then came home. Earlier, we used to train in teams and we used to motivate each other but now, I had to do everything alone and it didn’t feel good.”

Before coronavirus hit the world arduous, Dutee was focussing to carry her velocity all the way down to 11.15s, which is the Olympics qualification mark in 100m. She clocked 11.22s in Ranchi and have become the quickest Indian however nonetheless was a good distance away from securing an Olympic berth.

“I was preparing for the Olympics but then it was announced that due to the pandemic the entire country is going under lockdown,” she stated.

“During that time I had gone to Patiala to take part in a tournament but it was cancelled. We weren’t even allowed to go on the ground and I was confined in my room. During the initial days it was very problematic for me.”

It was a blended feeling for Dutee when Tokyo Olympics was lastly moved to 2021. She revealed taking an enormous monetary hit due to the postponement and likewise how she should do it yet again to achieve the place the place she was earlier than coronavirus got here into existence.

“When the Olympics got postponed I felt sad as I had prepared really hard for it. Financially also I took a hit as I had invested around 30 lakhs on my training from October to February,” Dutee stated.

“I had plans to go Germany to prepare for the Olympics — three months training and then the competition. But because of coronavirus I had to cancel all such plans. I will have to start my training from scratch now,” she added.

Now the lengthy highway to restoration begins for Dutee and in line with her, it’s not going to be a straightforward trip. To regain her velocity she should get again to full health first and that can take a while.

“It will take me three months to get back to full fitness. When I will start feeling fit then will focus on getting back my speed. I feel the speed that I touched in 2019, I will be able to regain than only in February 2021,” she stated.