Dream run continues

Senior National Athletics Championships:

Hima Das bags Gold in 400 m

Our Sports Reporter

GUWAHATI, June 29: The dream run of Assam Athlete Hima Das continued in the 58th National Inter State Senior Athletic championship as the athlete today collected the second gold medal in the meet and it came in the women 400mts. Nirmla of Haryana and Prachi of Uttar Pradesh Collected silver and bronze medal respectively.

The performance is creditable in many senses. She took 51.13sec to win the gold and in this process Hima also qualified for Asian Games in this event. The qualification mark for Asian Games was 52.47 sec. On the other hand she also broke previous 400mts meet record which was on the name of Nirmala Sheron (51.48). It was also the first occasion when any sprinter from Assam bagged two gold medals from a Senior National Athletics meet. It may be mentioned here that Hima earlier collected gold in womens 200mts.

After the heat, which was held yesterday, it looked like that Nirmla was favourite to win the womens 400 mts race. Nirmla was the only athlete in the heat who booked Asian Games berth with the timing of 52.36. Even today also she made good start and was able to take big lead against Hima.

However Assam Spirnter managed to hold her nerve and steadily reduced the gap before taking lead just before the ten meters of the finishing line.

Talking to the media after the race Hima today said, “ I know anything could be happened near the finishing line. So I was not too much worried at the initial stage and tried my best to concentrate on the race only. Rest of the things happened automatically.”

Her performance was lauded by the coach of the Indian team Basant Singh. Talking at the side line of the meet Singh said, “Nirmla managed to take big lead in the initial stage and I know it is very difficult to catch a sprinter if he or she takes 4-5mts lead than the opponents. Although Hima was not so experience in the 400mts but she covered the distance nicely and finally bagged the gold. It means she is maturing very quickly. If everything goes as per the schedule I can assure you that this girl will bring a couple of medals from the forthcoming Asian Games.”