Tampere (Finland): Indian sprinter Hima Das scripted history by becoming the first Indian woman to win a gold at the IAAF World Under-20 Athletics Championships. The 18-year-old clinched the top position in the women’s 400m, clocking 51.46 s, on Thursday.
Though this was not her personal best as she had clocked 51.13 at the National Inter-State Championships in Guwahati last month, no woman before her ever won a gold medal in a World Championship at any level. In fact, she is the first Indian athlete to have won a medal in a track event at the world level.
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Hima, a native of Dhing village in Assam’s Nagaon distrist, now joins the illustrious company of star javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra, who won a gold in Poland in 2016.
“I want to thank all the Indians back home and also those, who were here cheering me. It was very encouraging to have this kind of support,” said the pre-tournament favourite.
It was only last year that Hima took up serious running. In January 2017, she represented Nagaon district at a state-level athletics event, where she caught some important eyes. Coaches Nipon Das and Nabajit Malakar approached her and suggested that she start training under them. They then arranged her lodging and started a training programme for her.
This footballer-turned-sprinter had finished sixth in the Commonwealth Games 400m final in Gold Coast in April. However, she had been improving on her timing since then.
Congratulating her, Athletics Federation of India President Adille Sumariwalla said, “Very proud of Hima for creating history. It is one of the proudest moments of my life.”
