Sports
Hima Das won historic gold medal in the 400m of World U20 Championships on Thursday.
Updated : Jul 13, 2018, 09:50 PM IST
India’s apex body for running and managing athletics in India and affiliated to to the IAAF, AAA and Indian Olympic Association, Athletics Federation of India (AFI), were buzzed with several wishes and messages over 18-year-old Hima Das’ achievement.
Hima, who clinched a historic Gold in the 400m of World U20 Championships on Thursday, became the first Indian woman to bag a gold medal in a track event in a global tournament.
Hima is an Assamese who hails from a small town of Dhing in Assam’s city of Nagaon. When she spoke to the media after her semi-final win early morning on Thursday, AFI posted her picture of the same but unfortunately they even pointed out that Hima’s English was not very fluent.
#HimaDas speking to media after her SF win at #iaaftampere2018 @iaaforg Not so fluent in English but she gave her best there too. So proud of u #HimaDas Keep rocking & yeah,try ur best in final! @ioaindia @IndianOlympians @TejaswinShankar @PTI_News @StarSportsIndia @hotstartweets pic.twitter.com/N3PdEamJen
— Athletics Federation of India (@afiindia) July 12, 2018
As soon as they shared that post, irked fans bombarded them with angry comments saying Hima was in Finland was her skills in the sport and not her language.
She has landed in Tampere for displaying her talent in track and not in English Its shame on you @afiindia for what you said
— Rohith Ram (@Rohithp6) July 12, 2018
Why do you even need to mention not so fluent in English but, why does an athlete even need to know English.
— Manuarora6699 (@Manuarora66991) July 12, 2018
Even if you mention, why did you misspell speaking as speking? .
— Hari S V (@harisv1976) July 13, 2018
Hima should have replied in Hindi, there is absolutely no reason for her to speak English at all, unless except the fine English speaking gentleman/gentlemen at @afiindia wanted to look more English than the British
— Vinu Abraham (@VinuLive) July 13, 2018
“Morons. Check out the French soccer stars. Do they care to speak English? Your moronic English slavery keeps Indian athletics behind. The stars come from non-English backgrounds, perhaps that's why they excel,” another angry comment read.
No woman before Das has won a gold medal in a World Championship at any level, be it youth, junior or senior. She is also the first Indian -- men or women -- to have won a gold in a track event at the world level.
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 while Taylor Manson of USA was third in 52.28. "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.
Das, from Dhing village in Assam's Nagaon distrist, 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 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 onto improving 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."