Dutee Chand Enters 200m Final With Fastest Time, Hima Disqualified

Hima lined up for the semi-final heat number two but had to make a premature exit due to a false start.

• Dutee Chand qualified for the final of the 200m event with the best time of 23.00s.
• The other Indian in the event, Hima Das, was disqualified following a false start.
• The final is on Wednesday at 5:20pm IST.

Asian Games silver medalist Dutee Chand entered the women's 200m final after topping the semi-finals at the Asian Games in Jakarta on Tuesday. But there was disappointment for India in the other semi-final, as Hima Das was disqualified following a false start.

Dutee emerged on top of the overall table after clocking 23 seconds, followed by Bahrain's Edidiong Odiong with a timing of 23.01. China's Lingwei Kong finished third after clocking her personal best of 23.32 seconds. She didn't start well but pushed herself in the final 100 metres to finish at top.

Follow live updates from Day 10 of the 2018 Asian Games here.

In the other semi-final that witnessed two false starts, teenager Hima got a red card and was forced to leave her blocks before Hajar Alkhaldi of Bahrain also met similar fate.

Earlier, Hima clocked 23.47 to finish fourth in Heat 2, just 200th of a second short of a direct semis berth as Marie Knot of the Philippines took the third spot with 23.45.

But the sprinter from Assam earned a berth in the semi-finals as one of the fastest losers in the heats as she was seventh in the overall standings.

Dutee, on the other hand, won Heat 4 with a time of 23.37 seconds which earned her a direct spot in the semi-finals.

She was second in the overall standings at the end of the first round, behind Nigina Sharipova of Uzbekistan, who won Heat 3 with a personal best time of 23.31.

In the National Inter-State Championships in June, Hima had won the 200m gold in 23.10 ahead of Dutee, who had clocked 23.41.

(For The Quint’s complete coverage of 2018 Asian Games, click here.)

In sports, a false start is a movement by a participant before or in some cases after being signaled or otherwise permitted by the rules to start.

In track and field sprints, according to sport's governing body, IAAF’s rule an athlete e has false-started if he moves within 0.1 seconds after the gun has been fired. Before 2003, an athlete who has a made a false start would be given another chance to start and would be disqualified only after a second false start. But from 2016, if there is a false start, the race is stopped and the offending athletes are immediately disqualified.