HIMA DAS, the doughty athlete from the North-east, talks to HARSHIT BISHT about how she grew up with the dream of representing the nation and became the poster girl of India's track and field events with just one single race
In the second week of July 2018, when the entire world was curious to know about who’s going to lift the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, around 1,200 km away from the jampacked Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow at Tampere in Finland, the world saw a rise of a new star in track and field from India, which isn’t a familiar face in the world of fast moving world.
Participating in her maiden International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) World Under 20 championship, 18-year old Hima Das created history by becoming the first ever Indian to win the Gold medal in track and field events at world level. Participating in 400 m category, with bib number 1731 in the back, Das was one of the favourites to win and the young athlete stands up to the expectations by running supreme (51.46 seconds) and create history.
She had done well in the earlier rounds as well, winning Heat 4 with a time of 52.25 seconds. She emerged on top in the semi-finals as well, winning her race in 52.10 seconds.
Initially, after having a slow start, where she was trailing by three athletes, the Assamese pressed the final gear in the last segment and produce a powerful sprint in the final 100m of the race and left everyone miles apart to not only win her maiden title at world level but also enroll herself in record books of Indian sports in spectacular fashion by doing something which hasn’t been done before by anyone.
Talking about that race which gives her so much to cheer about in such a small span of time, Hima remembers that moment saying it was like a dream come true for her which she had in her mind ever since she came into this sport.
“It has been like a dream so far. I have always wanted to get into Indian team and wear Indian jersey. My goal was to make India proud and I am happy that I did that by becoming the world junior champion,” she says.
She is the only Indian — male or female — to have won Gold in a track event at the world level. She joined Neeraj Chopra, who won Gold in the javelin — a field event — in the IAAF World U-20 Championships in the last edition in 2016 in Poland.
Das’ rise has been nothing short of meteoric. One of her village school teachers saw her pace while she was playing football on a muddy field at his village. He told her to take up athletics. And soon the teenager was spotted by Nipon Das, an athletics coach with the Directorate of Sports and Youth Welfare during an inter-district meet late in 2016.
Nipon asked her to shift to Guwahati, 150 km from her village and convinced the youngster that she had a future in athletics. Her parents were initially reluctant but later relented.
However, her coach Nipon Das feels that this is just a start for her on the road to victory as she will get more medals in upcoming tournaments.
“She always had the zeal and dedication to achieve her dreams and make it happen. When I met her for the first time in January 2017, I knew that she will touch the sky and will do something great for the country,” Nipon, the athletics coach with the Directorate of Sports and Youth Welfare tells you.
But before the big win in Finland, the 18-year-old had to spend days practicing football in the mud pits adjoining rice fields. This was the time when Nipon met her.
He convinced her parents to shift her to Guwahati and got her admitted to the State academy that only served in boxing and football. He along with the State coach Nabajit Malakar was so impressed with her talent that they took loans to send her to the World Youth Championships in Kenya the same year.
Talking about her love for the game, Nipon said: “She was always into 100 and 200-metre race and was doing great, but we thought that she can do better in 400 meters as well. I started taking her trial for 400 meters and she performed really well. After that, her schedule for the 400-metre race started.
“I feel that Hima is very hard working, dedicated and has strong psychological power. She learns by observing things. She has good relations with everybody. When she is on the ground, nothing can distract her except work.”
He also says that Hima always liked training with the boys.
“That was a strategy. If a girl trains with a boy, her performance improves. She has a high confidence level and when she thinks of doing something, she ends up doing that,” he said.
Talking about her future goals, Nipon is confident that she will win big at upcoming events too. “I am sure she is going to win the upcoming events too. She is more confident than me. She keeps telling me: ‘Sir I never run after medals but against time’. When I will take less time to finish a race, I will automatically win. She will definitely make India proud once again,” he said.
Refreshing the memories about when she (Hima) told her parents that she wants to pursue her career in sports her father, who was himself a footballer lend her support and inspired her to follow her passion.
“My father was a football player and he always used to say me that get into sports. My family has been very supportive. My father has been a source of inspiration for me and because of him, I am into this sport,” Hima tells you.
Das trained at the Indira Gandhi Athletics Stadium at the Sarusajai Sports Complex, Guwahati. Then, she won Gold in the 400m race of the Federation Cup in Patiala in March to qualify for the Commonwealth Games.
She finished sixth in the Commonwealth Games' 400 m finals and then lowered the Indian U-20 record in 400 m to 51.13 seconds while winning Gold in the National Inter-State Championships in Guwahati to qualify for the Asian Games in Indonesia.
At the Asian Games even she maintained that top level of performance which was expected from her and broke two national records in a span of two days in the women's 400m (51.00 and 50.79 seconds) race though she had to be content with a Silver behind Salwa Naser (50.09) of Bahrain.
Hima was also part of the Gold winning 4x400m relay team and Silver-winning mixed 4x400m relay quartet.
Talking about her vision as an athlete, Hima, who is still shaping herself for big challenges ahead, is very much clear about her goals and about the priorities she is going to have in her career. Unlike any other, the girl from the Northeast doesn’t want to run behind medals. That isn’t her priority but more importantly, wants to improve on her timing as much as she can before her body gives up.
“I never wanted to run behind medals, my aim since the time I begin to understand this sport has been to improve my timing. More than thinking about how to make a podium finish, I am more concerned about beating my previous best score,” she says.
“Like at moment my personal best timing is 50.79 seconds, so before my next race, I am more concerned about how to make it 50.78 or even less. Because it is very important for a sprinter to work on his timing especially because even a difference of Single microsecond can make a difference on its day,” Hima says.
In April 2018, Das competed in the 2018 Commonwealth Games at Gold coast, in the 400 meters and reached the final where she finished sixth with a time of 51.32 seconds, 1.17 seconds behind Gold medalist Amantle Montsho from Botswana.
Remembering that race, she said: “I lost in CWG because of just a difference in a microsecond. I was tied with the fellow athlete but since she got better of me in one-hundredth of a second, I wasn’t able to win the medal. So to avoid further mishap of such kind, I train more extensively to not let go any chance of failing at any point.”
It’s her building years in this sporting world and she well realizes this fact that for an athlete the major challenge apart from competitors is his physical fitness level, which doesn’t tend to remain same throughout. So before that stage arrives she wants to work on everything she could improve.
“For a sprinter, it is never easy to maintain the same level of performance throughout her career. Because after a certain point of time the body doesn’t remain in that good shape and you can’t really help over it. It’s a part of life. So my aim is that before I reach that stage, I keep the hard work going and improve as much,” Hima shares.
And because of her stunning season, she was honored with Arjuna Award along with Neeraj and Jinson Johnson, both of them also were the Asian Games Gold medal winners in the Javelin throw and 1500m respectively.
However, she said that she wasn’t expecting to be nominated for the award this year.
“I didn’t expect to win the Arjuna this year. I was thinking maybe next year, I will be considered.”
Discussing her upcoming schedule, Hima said: “The season is over now. Next year, there is South Asian Games, Asian Championship and World Championship, so how to approach the different events and how to prepare I will do it during training.”
Asked which race she holds close to her heart, Hima said: “The Finland (World Junior Championship) race remains one of my favorites and also the semifinal at Asian Games when it had started raining.”
Nicknamed the ‘Dhing Express’, after her school, Hima has been a sensation ever after that Finland race which changed everything for her. The 18-year-old daughter of farmer parents at Kandhulimari village at Nagaon district has become the toast of the nation.
Her father Ronjit Das owns a 2 bigha (0.4 acres) plot of land and her mother Junali is a housewife. The small piece of land was the only source of income for a family of six.
She is the eldest of four siblings. She has three younger sisters and a younger brother.
After her remarkable performance that gained limelight in July, which her parents along with the majority of the media houses didn’t even take seriously until Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself took Twitter to congratulate the athlete on her rare feat.
Soon after when reporters reached her family members after she did unimaginable at Finland her father expressed joy on her daughter’s achievement saying that his child is very determined and once she made up her mind to do something. So gives everything to fulfill it and that’s what is
“She is very stubborn if she wants to do something she will not listen to anybody but she will do it with aplomb. She is a strong girl and that is why she is coming up to achieve something. I hope she will do something for the country,” her father Ronjit tells you from his village in Assam.
While her cousin added: “Physically also, she is very strong. She can kick a football like any of us. I told her not to play football with the boys but she did not listen to us.”
It is a tough life for her parents given the meager income but after that winning moment, they can’t stop celebrating.
“We are happy that she chose sports and she is doing well. Our dream is for Hima to win more and more medals. Since this morning, the whole village is celebrating her Gold medal. A lot of our relatives have dropped into our place and we are distributing sweets,” Ronjit says.
