Athletics News

Indian woman sprinter Dutee Chand wants to sell her BMW to fund her training expenses due to lack of sponsors amid global coronavirus pandemic. In a Facebook post, Dutee Chand posted a photo of her BMW and wrote in Odia “I want to sell my BMW car. If anyone wants to buy, contact me on messenger.” “No sponsor is willing to spend on me due to this pandemic. I am in need of money and so have decided to sell it off to meet my training and diet expenses as I’m preparing for the Tokyo Olympic, which has been shifted to July 11, 2021, due to COVID-19 Outbreak,” Dutee Chand told India Today. Dutee Chand had bought a BMW 3 series in 2018 from Telangana for 30 Lakhs after recovering a cash reward of Rs 3 crore from Orissa CM Naveen Patnaik for her achievement in Asian Games. Dutee does not train as per the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) rules and regulations and hence has no support from the AFI. She trains under the aegis of the state government and KIIT University as a sponsor. She also got Rs 50 lakh for Olympic training from government of which she spends around Rs 5 lakh per month including salaries of coach, physiotherapists, dietician and other purposes. All the money from sponsors had been spent keeping in mind the earlier dates of Olympics, 23 July 2020. “I’m not upset. I was able to buy the car because of my competitions. I will again compete, earn money and buy myself a luxury car. The important thing right now is to focus and train for Olympics in 2021,” said Asian Games 2018 silver medalist said to timesnownews.com.