Picture Courtesy : Twitter
Hailing from Dhing village in Assam’s Nagaon district , Hima Das was virtually unknown. But not anymore. She has become the first Indian woman athlete to win a gold at the world level as she clinched the top spot in the women’s 400m final race in the IAAF World Under-20 Athletics Championships in Tampere (Finland).
While she sprinted to glory, the Athletics Federation of India ( AFI) made a snide remark on her English and as result saw it getting backlash on twitter . “#HimaDas speking to media after her SF win at #iaaftampere2018 @iaaforg Not so fluent in English but she gave her best there too. So proud of u #HimaDas Keep rocking & yeah,try ur best in final!” read the post
#HimaDas speking to media after her SF win at #iaaftampere2018 @iaaforg Not so fluent in English but she gave her best there too. So proud of u #HimaDas Keep rocking & yeah,try ur best in final! @ioaindia @IndianOlympians @TejaswinShankar @PTI_News @StarSportsIndia @hotstartweets pic.twitter.com/N3PdEamJen
— Athletics Federation of India (@afiindia) July 12, 2018
The 18-year-old Das, a pre-tournament favourite, clocked 51.46s to win the gold, which triggered a wild celebration at the Indian camp. This was though not her personal best as she had clocked 51.13 last month in Guwahti at the National Inter State Championships.
She now joins the illustrious company of star javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra, who won a gold in Poland in the last edition in 2016 in a world record effort. In fact, Das is the first Indian track athlete to have won a medal in the history of this competition.
The other medal winners are — Seema Punia (bronze in discus in 2002) and Navjeet Kaur Dhillon (bronze in discus in 2014). Das was the favourite to win gold as she is the U-20 season leader in this quarter-mile event. Her rise has been nothing less than meteoric as she took up serious running only last year.
Her fine showing earned kudos from all.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted his congratulations for the super show in his tweet
India is delighted and proud of athlete Hima Das, who won a historic Gold in the 400m of World U20 Championships. Congratulations to her! This accomplishment will certainly inspire young athletes in the coming years.
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) July 13, 2018
Congress president Rahul Gandhi too hailed Hima Das on twitter
In the video below, you will see what makes Hima Das, Gold medalist at the world under-20 Athletics Championship, in Finland, so special!
This is India’s first ever Gold in a track event at a world championship.
I salute her achievement & congratulate her on her historic win. pic.twitter.com/N4q62mVecM
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) July 13, 2018
