She came, she saw, she conquered; Indian sprinter Hima Das on Thursday scripted history by becoming the first Indian woman to win a gold at the IAAF World Under-20 Athletics Championships in Tampere, Finland, thus becoming the first Indian athlete to have won a medal in the history of this competition.
The 18-year-old reached the top spot in the women's 400m final race after winning a gold at the IAAF World Under-20 Athletics Championships in Tampere, Finland on the third day of competitions. She started slow but much to the surprise of the spectators, overtook three rivals in the final 80m, and thus claimed the gold as she clocked 51.46 seconds.
Das is the daughter of a rice farmer from Dhing village in Nagaon district. Hima is the youngest among six children of the family. Her coach Nipon had spotted her talent during an inter-district meet. The coach asked Hima to shift to Guwahati, 140 km from her village and convinced her parents who were reluctant to let Hima leave. This tough go-getter hasn’t looked back since then.
Earlier, throwers like Seema Punia won bronze in discus in 2002, Navjeet Kaur Dhillon had secured a bronze in discus in 2014 and Neeraj Chopra claimed to fame by winning gold in javelin in 2016 at the World under 20 Championships. But, she’s the only runner in this elite club of Indian athletes.
Hima has become the most valuable player and will always be remembered as a woman who made Indians proud by winning a world championship gold in the individual event.
Here's what the superstar said after winning:
speking to media after her SF win at Not so fluent in English but she gave her best there too. So proud of u Keep rocking & yeah,try ur best in final! pic.twitter.com/N3PdEamJen
— Athletics Federation of India (@afiindia)Read Exclusive COVID-19 Coronavirus News updates, at MyNation.