The quarter-mile queen

Vinayak Padmadeo

   

Tears rolled down Hima Das’ eyes when the National Anthem was being played at the medal ceremony in Tampere, Finland. As the video went viral over social media, the sprinter from a small village in Assam touched many a heart.

It was indeed a proud moment for the country when the girl from the paddy fields of Dhing in Assam’s Nagaon district won the 400-metre individual gold at the U-20 World Championships. It was for the first time that an Indian had struck gold in a global track event. With her victory, the daughter of Ranjit and Jonali Das lit up the athletics scene in India. Every Indian felt her sense of pride as she saw Tricolour being hoisted, along with the flags of Romania and the USA. This was her first major medal, after a relatively less fruitful run at the Commonwealth Games. 

   

Method to madness

In all her major races, Hima stays within a striking distance of the leaders but then takes off in the last third of the race. In the final in Tampere, Hima was seen going fourth into the bend. But she breezed past the field and the leader USA’s Taylor Manson to finish with a comfortable margin of over two feet from the second place finisher Romania’s Andrea Miklos. At the 2018 Commonwealth Games, Hima bettered her personal best timings twice — when she clocked 51.53 seconds in the semifinals and then finished sixth with 51.32 seconds.

Hima had stunned the sparse crowd at the Federation Cup in Patiala in March early this year with her sensational run. The Athletics Federation of India had then set a steep qualification mark of 52 seconds for the Commonwealth Games. Coaches and other support staff had confided with the media that it would be tough for any of the girls to qualify. They all picked MR Poovamma as a favourite for gold. However, Hima blew away the favourite and the field to script a wonderful journey.

In Patiala, too, till the last third of the race, Poovamma was in the lead position. Then Hima broke out and whizzed past Poovamma, who couldn’t believe what struck her. The strength in the legs of this Assamese girl stunned her so much that she couldn’t even hold on to the silver medal. Vijaykumari GK finished ahead of Poovamma. And Hima clocked 51.97 seconds.

A dream fulfilled 

Aspiring to be a sportswoman in Dhing was unheard of. While growing up, Hima wanted to play football for India. However, the youngest of four siblings soon realised that women’s football had no future in the country. The switch to athletics occured in 2015 under Navodaya Vidyalaya coach Shamshul Haq.

After her stunning feat in Patiala this year, Hima had told this correspondent how she yearned to wear the India jersey and represent the country in women’s football. “My dream was to wear the India jersey. But there is no future in women’s football. So I switched to athletics,” she said.

Hima’s fortunes in athletics changed after she did well at the State Championships. She was called into the state camp in 2016. Here under the watchful eyes of Nipon Das and Nabajit Malakar, Hima took giant strides.

“I don’t recall a day when Nabajit or I  had to discipline her for anything during the training. The only thing I can remember was her habit of fiddling with her phone. So, I had to sometimes take it away from her,” Nipon said.

Next was the big jump after the National Open Senior Championships in Chennai in September 2017 where the chief national coach Bahadur Singh and his assistant Radhakrishnan Nair noticed her performance.

“Radha sir said we will take her to the national camp to train under Galina (Bukharina) but kept the condition that she will train for 400 metres. We agreed thinking that our girl will learn and will be looked after in terms of diet and everything,” said Nipon, who along with Malakar had rented a basic apartment with a cot and an LPG connection to house Hima in Guwahati.

The road ahead

After switching to athletics, Hima first trained to become a sprinter. She started competing in 100 and 200 metres. Hima’s journey as a quarter-miler began under Galina Bukharina after she joined the India camp in October 2017.

According to Nair, credit should go to her coaches. “She has proven us right with her results and timings,” the assistant coach said. “She can easily break under 50 seconds if she improves in her first 100 metres. If you see all her important races, she pushes hard in the final third. But if she starts well, she can do much better,” Nair added.

If she is able to do that, Hima could write yet another chapter to her already wonderful career with perhaps a first athletics medal at the Tokyo Olympics two years later. Fingers crossed.

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She loves her rice and pork