Hima Das reacts after historic 400m gold: Thank you for the support, India

Mangalore Today News Network

July 13, 2018: Hima Das, the gold medal winner in 400m race at the World Junior championships, thanked the fans in India for supporting her after she became India’s first ever track gold medallist at the IAAF World Under-20 Athletics Championships.

Hima created history on Thursday when she won India’s first ever track gold medal at the Under-20 IAAF world athletics event in Finland.

She recorded a time of 51.46 seconds in the 400m race.

"I am very happy to win the gold in the World Junior championships. I want to thank all the Indians back home and also those, who were here cheering me. It was very encouraging to have this kind of support," she said after the race.

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 previous medal winners at the World Junior Championships were Seema Punia (bronze in discus in 2002) and Navjeet Kaur Dhillon (bronze in discus in 2014).

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.
Das had earlier clocked an Indian U-20 record of 51.32 seconds to finish sixth in the Commonwealth Games 400m final in Gold Coast in April.

Since then, she has gone on to improve her timings. She lowered the Indian U-20 record in 400m to 51.13 seconds while winning gold in the recent National Inter State Championships in Guwahati.

Congratulating Das, Athletics Federation of India President Adille Sumariwalla said, "Very proud of Hima for creating history. It is one of the proudest moments of my life and for Indian athletics. Congratulations to Hima and her coaches, the government and SAI for their support to AFI."

(With PTI inputs)