Tampere (Finland): Sprinter Hima Das Thursday scripted history by becoming the first Indian woman athlete to win gold at the world level as she clinched the top spot in the women’s 400m in the IAAF World U-20 Athletics Championships here.
The 18-year-old Das, a pre-tournament favourite, clocked 51.46 seconds to win the yellow metal, which triggered a wild celebration at the Indian camp. This was though not her personal best as she had clocked 51.13 seconds last month in Guwahati at the National Inter-State Championships.
Running in lane number 4, Das was behind Romania’s Andrea Miklos at the final bend but produced a stunning burst during the final stretch to cross the finishing line well ahead of the field. She produced her trademark burst at the final 50m. Miklos took the silver in 52.07 seconds while Taylor Manson of USA was third with 52.28 seconds.
“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,” Das said after the race.
Das who hails from Dhing village in Assam’s Nagaon district, 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 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 onto improving her timings.