Asian Athletics: Manpreet Kaur wins gold in shot put, Dutee Chand bosses 100m race

Dutee Chand remained a major highlight of the Asian Athletics Championships 2017 being held at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, on Thursday July 5.

The 20-year-old hometown girl remained the fastest in the women's 100 metre race round 1 event on day 1.

She has now qualified for the semi-finals, to take place at a later stage.

Manpreet Kaur, meanwhile, won the coveted gold medal in the women's shot put event, by recording a 18.28m attempt.

She is the mother of a five-year-old.

Can Dutee get glory this time?

Dutee, who struggled and strived hard to make it to the Rio Olympics 2016, got heavily demoralised after failing to qualify for the 100m semi-finals in the quadrennial event in Brazil.

However, with Tokyo Olympics in her sight now, Dutee is determined for a major show.

On Thursday evening, she recorded a timing of 11.40 seconds in the heat 3 of the Asian championships.

Over the three heats for the women's 100m race event, Dutee's timing was the fastest.

Here's the list:

Vikas Gowda settles for bronze

Plenty of hopes were on discus throw specialist Vikas Gowda. The 34-year-old Padma Shri award winner from Karnataka won the bronze medal in the men's discus throw finals but failed to qualify for the World Athletics Championships 2017, scheduled for August in London.

He is a former two-time gold medallist in the Asian level, but has failed to deliver this time around.