Dutee Chand on way to breaking the national record in the 100 metres at the Open Nationals in Ranchi.
It’s almost a year since Dutee Chand has been working on perfecting a tweak to her running technique, under the watchful eye of coach Nagpuri Ramesh.
Shared News| Updated: October 12, 2019 9:53:07 am
The 23-year-old’s efforts have helped her make significant improvements in her sprint timings and Friday’s national record-breaking run was one such instance. The Odisha runner re-wrote her own 100m national mark of 11.26s with a 11.22s run in the semifinals of the Senior Open National Championships in Ranchi. She returned to win the gold medal clocking 11.25s.
Ramesh points out that the most significant change the runner has made is in the way she tackles the first 30 metres of the race. The key is to “stay as low to the ground” as possible in the initial phase of the sprint. According to the seasoned Sports Authority of India coach, most top runners maintain the forward lean position till the first 30 metres but Dutee had the habit of getting upright within the first 15-20 metres itself, hindering her acceleration.
“The closer you are to the ground, the better the acceleration. It’s as simple as that. If you look at her older races, after the initial lean she would switch to the upright posture much earlier than other competitors. I noticed this and had a word with her. So we devised a training technique to rectify the flaw and have made huge progress. Today’s result proves it,” a joyous Ramesh told The Media.
