3 reasons why Dutee Chand fails to deliver at world-level events

Dutee Chand's hopes of winning a medal at the quadrennial event were dashed yet again. The 2018 Asian Games silver medallist fizzled out in the qualifying heats itself at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.

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After making the cut for the Games on the basis of her world ranking, she was not seen as one of India's primary medal hopefuls. However, her personal bests in both 100m and 200m events would have seen her sail through to the next round. Unfortunately, she was nowhere close to doing that.

Dutee Chand clocked a mediocre 11.54s in women's 100m and 23.85s in the 200m event in Tokyo. That meant she ended all but last in the former and last in the latter event of the qualification heats.

Olympic games athletics training tracks. pic.twitter.com/xQY2wB5Qc0

— Dutee Chand (@DuteeChand) July 26, 2021

Dutee Chand has a personal best of 11.17s in women's 100m, which she had achieved a couple of months earlier at the Indian Grand Prix 4 event. Her best in 200m is 23.00 seconds, achieved at the 2018 Asian Games.

Although Dutee Chand would be the best person to provide the reason for this underwhelming showing, let's try to decipher some probable causes:

Pressure of performing on the world stage

There's no doubt that Dutee Chand is one of the best sprinters India has ever produced. However, this tag comes with a lot of hype as well. There is a tremendous amount of undue pressure put on her whenever she travels to participate in a world-level event such as the Olympics.

What hurts me very much that I couldn't stand to the expectations of my supporters, promoters & coaches. I would like to thank them for their support & feel sorry to disappoint you all.

— Dutee Chand (@DuteeChand) August 2, 2021

However, those who follow the sport keenly know that even if Dutee Chand were able to match her personal bests at these world-level meets, it still won't be good enough for her to land a medal.

Perhaps it would be better were she conditioned in a way that she produces her best results in these tournaments. Instead of piling unnecessary pressure on her during the lead-up to them, fans also need to understand the extent of Dutee's current potential.

Dutee Chand's knack of playing the field rather than her strengths

If one keenly observes Dutee Chand's races at the Olympics and world championships, we can see that she usually has a pretty decent start to her races. She puts in a pretty decent effort to match other athletes up until halfway through the race.

However, it is just a matter of time until Dutee Chand observes any athlete from the corner of her eye overtaking her, she starts to panic. It always seems that she tends to forget her technique and tries to overdo it.

Dutee Chand's knack for over-striding when she is falling behind the pack is the primary reason as to why she always falters on the big stage. She gets rattled by the fact that she is being overtaken and in the process makes too many errors in judgment.

This mental block can be overcome with proper conditioning and training. The federation also needs to ensure that Dutee Chand participates in good quality events in America and Europe so that she builds up the confidence of performing at the world level events.

Lack of motivation for world level meets

At the 2016 Rio Olympics, Dutee Chand clocked a timing of 11.69 seconds when she had registered a sub 11.30 second timing earlier that season. At the 2017 Asian Championships, she clocked her best time of 11.40 seconds in the qualifying heat. However, at the 2017 World Championships, she faltered again with a very disappointing time of 12.07 seconds.

At the 2018 Asian Games, Dutee Chand regained her best form. She clocked some stupendous times in both the 100 and 200 meter events to win a silver medal in both the events. In 2019, she won a gold medal at the World University Games in the 100 meter event with a timing of 11.32 seconds in the final.

The pattern observed is quite clear. Dutee Chand tends to peak for Asian level events where she is a sureshot medal contender. For events where she is not expected to win a medal, she tries too hard to put in those hard yards to advance into the further rounds. And that is where she falters more often than not.

To put things very crudely, Dutee Chand needs to have this faith in her technique and abilities. She has the talent to succeed on the big stage, but she needs to have that belief in herself as well.