Hima Das
Published : Dec 28, 2018 15:22 IST
Many may be still wondering how she manages those stunning timings… well Hima Das has the medals to match them too in 2018.
For someone who ran a hand-timed 55.8s at the East Zone junior athletics championships in Kolkata in September, quartermiler Das’ progression in a year’s time has been nothing short of amazing, forcing many to rub their eyes in disbelief.
She has improved with every meet and set a national record, clocking 50.79s to take the Asian Games 400m silver behind Bahrain’s Nigeria-born Salwa Eid Naser, the 2017 Worlds silver medallist and a young wonder herself.
Das was in such hot form this season that the 18-year-old from Assam comfortably won the 400m gold at the under-20 World Championships in Tampere, Finland, in July in 51.46s becoming the first Indian sprinter – male or female – to claim a world title.
Three months before that, she proved that she could be a quality quartermiler by finishing sixth in the Commonwealth Games, the first time she was running the 400m in a major international event.
She had been running the shorter sprints before that and had finished fifth in the 200m at the 2017 under-18 Worlds in Nairobi.
But the quartermile has taken her to a new high, she was also a major factor in the retaining its 4x400m relay gold and the mixed 4x400m relay silver at the Jakarta Asiad.