The ability to push hard in closing stages of race gives Hima Das an edge, says P.T. Usha

Hima Das has been crowned as India’s newest golden girl this month after storming to victory in the 400m event at the World U-20 Athletics Championships in Finland. The 18-year-old became the first Indian to win a gold medal at a global track event. The 51.46 secs, which she clocked in the final, has now put her among medal contenders at the Jakarta Asian Games. 

The daughter of a rice farmer was spotted two years ago by a local coach, who recommended her to another, Nipun Das, in Guwahati and Hima has since made rapid strides in the national setup. Usha said Hima’s success at a young age had a lot to do with improved training facilities. 

Usha, who is also running her academy in Kerala and training Jisna Mathew, another young 400m runner in the national relay squad, stated that there wasn’t a major shift in training methods since her days, but a masseur and physio with the squad mattered. Hima too built her strength running in fields and playing football as a young girl.

“After a hard training day, I used to massage myself. That meant her recovery was slow. I had to travel long distances to train on a synthetic track, which added to residual fatigue,” she said.

Raising concerns over India’s small pool of 400m runners, Usha said, “We have only two good 400m runners. The gap between the leading two runners (Hima and Jisna) and others is four-five seconds, which is a lot. If we have five-six runners clocking close to 54 secs, it will be a big advantage.”