Two years ago, Chand's dreams of representing her country at the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games came crashing when an indefinite ban was imposed on her, barring her from taking part in women's competitions due to her higher levels of testosterone (hormones primarily produced by male).
Dutee fought the case at the Court of Arbitration for Sports in Switzerland which upheld her appeal, citing no clear cut link with higher levels of these hormones with enhancement in performance. She returned to competitions last year and broke the national record in 100m dash recently.
"I prefer to train alone at SAI camp in Hyderabad. I don't train at national camp at NIS Patiala. Some of the 4x400 relay members don't like me. I am however in touch with M R Poovamma (top quarter-tmiler)," she added.
At the Asian Indoors in Doha in February, Dutee set a national record in 60m, clocking 7.28 seconds. She also became the first Indian woman athlete to qualify for the World Indoor Meet in Portland in the United States in March, reaching the semi-finals of the 60m.
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20-year-old Dutee also won the gold in women's 100m dash
with a timing of 11.37s in the second leg of Indian Grand Prix athletics series at the NIS tracks in Patiala last week and remains confident of making the Rio Olympics cut in the upcoming events.
"I have done well recently. I'm confident I will qualify for Olympics there. Here, there is lack of competition for me. But there I'm sure with more fighters around, I'll improve my timing and make the cut. Once I qualify, I can relax and concentrate on my training for Olympics. I'm targetting 10.99s mark and want to reach the finals of Olympics 100m sprint.
Dutee was left ruing the fact that she was not sent for training abroad as it would have helped her improve her timing.
"When I asked them (government and federation) to send me abroad for training, they didn't have faith on me. Instead, they were sending 4x400 relay team to Turkey and Poland but one who is doing well in individual event is not being sent. But I tried on my own and did well," said Dutee.