Dutee Chand, who recently became the first Indian woman track and field athlete to clinch a gold medal in the World University Games, is slated to run 100m dash in two IAAF-approved races -- one in Ireland and another in Germany
Dutee Chand gets a medal at an event.
Indian sprinter Dutee Chand requested the Ministry of External Affairs to enable her to get a visa to participate in a couple of races in Europe.
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Dutee Chand, who recently became the first Indian woman track and field athlete to clinch a gold medal in the World University Games, is slated to run 100m dash in two IAAF-approved races -- one in Ireland on August 13 and another in Germany on August 19. But she is yet to get her visa for the events.
"Want to participate in @iaaforg tournaments in Ireland & Germany on 13 and 19 Aug rsptvly. My Visa formalities have not been completed due to some reasons. Request @DrSJaishankar & @MEAIndia to intervene at the earliest and help me participate in the race," the 23-year-old runner tweeted.
Sources, however, said that Dutee Chand had applied for the visa last week and she had planned to depart from the country on Friday.
"She had wanted to run in Europe to qualify for the World Championships later this year and even for the Olympics but funding was the issue. Nobody was coming out to fund her. Finally, Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology in Bhubaneswar came up to finance this two-week trip to Europe," a source said.
"So she applied for the visa mid last week and she is waiting for the visa now. There is still time though not much and hoping that she will get the visa in the next few days to be able to run the races," the source added.
Dutee is currently a student of Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology, Bhubaneswar.
The World Championships qualifying timing is 11.24 seconds and 2020 Olympic Games cut-off is 11.15. She ran her personal best and national record time of 11.26 seconds in Doha in April during the Asian Championships.
Dutee Chand is the third Indian woman to ever qualify for the Women's 100 metres race at the Summer Olympic Games in 2016.
Dutee Chand is also India's first sports person to openly come out as a member of the LGBTQ+ community, when she spoke about being in a same-sex relationship earlier this year.
With inputs from PTI
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