Dhing Express’ Hima Das, with 5 gold medals in 19 days

Early Life of Hima Das

Hima Das, nicknamed as the ‘Dhing Express’ is a sprint runner belonging to the state of Assam in India.  She belongs to the Keot (Kaibarta) community which is an aboriginal community in the region. She was born on 9^th January 2000 at Kandhulimari village which is near the town of Dhing in Assam. Her parents Ronjit and Jonali Das are farmers by profession. She is the youngest of her five siblings and was interested in football in her childhood. Sadly, she did not see any bright prospects of women’s football in the country so diverted herself to sprint running on the advice of her physical education teacher in the school.

Achievements

The 19^th-year-old athlete has become the first Indian athlete to bag a gold medal at the track event held at IAAF World U20 Championships. She also holds the Indian national record in the race of 400 meters with a timing of 50.79 seconds which she attained at the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta, Indonesia. The ‘Golden Girl’ has won her latest gold medal in Prague on 20^th July. She clocked the season’s best timing of 52.09 seconds for winning her 400 m race at Nove Mesto nad Metuji Grand Pix., Czech Republic.  She had won a total of 5 gold medals in 19 days in July 2019.

She won gold in   200m Poznan Athletics Grand Pix held in Poland on July 2^nd, 2019 with a timing of 23.65 seconds. Afterward, she won gold in 200 m Kutno Athletics Meet also held in Poland on July 7^th, 2019 with a timing of 23.97 seconds. On July 13^th, 2019 she again won 200 m gold at the Kladno Athletics Meet held in the Czech Republic with a timing of 23.43 seconds.  She won the gold medal at the Tabor Athletics Meet in the race of 200 m on July 17^th, 2019 with a timing of 23.25 seconds.

Apart from the five golds earned by her this year, Hima has a long list of achievements to her credit. In April 2018, she competed in 400 meters race and the 4 × 400 meters relay conducted at the Gold Coast, Australia. In the race of 400 meters, she reached the finals by finishing sixth in 51.32 seconds which 1.17 seconds behind the gold medalist Amantle Montsho was belonging to Botswana. She was also a part of the Indian team in the 4 × 400 meters relay which had finished seventh in the final with the timing of 3 minutes and 33.61 seconds.

She also clocked 51.00 in heat 1 and qualified for the 400 m final at the 2018 Asian Games by setting a new Indian national record. On 26^th August 2018. she won the silver medal by improving her national record to 50.79s in the 400 m final . On 30^th August 2018, she along with Sarita Gayakwad, M.R. Poovamma and V.K. Vismaya won the silver medal in 400 m final. She also managed to achieve a silver medal in the 4×400 m mixed relay which was organized for the first time in the Asian Games. She agreed to endorse Adidas in September 2018.

PM Narendra Modi congratulated Hima on her achievements along with Bollywood and sports celebrities. She tweeted and promised to leave no stone unturned to achieve her mission # Tokyo2020.

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