Long exam breaks could hurt Hima Das’ World Championship chances, reveals coach
Deputy chief coach Radhakrishnan Nair has revealed that Hima Das’ long 45-day break stretching across and February and March could inflict damage her chances of qualifying for the World Championships. Not up to the highest level at the moment, Das has time until September 6 to prepare herself.
Despite winning as many as five gold medals in 20 days across various European meets, Das hasn’t been to her best yet. She failed to catch eyeballs in the 400m event with her timing and qualifying for the championships in Doha is still evading her.
The sprinter, who became a household name after winning the Under-20 world event in the quartermile event, has clocked only 52.09s in the 400m event in the Czech Republic, which is way below than the world championship qualifying standard of 51.80 seconds.
And Nair has been if the opinion that her 45-day break for exams in February-March saw her not train at all and is hurting her chances now. “She was away for 45 days and she broke her training and did not do anything. Back pain was not a big issue. She could not train during this period because of her exams,” said Nair, reported Indian Express.
“This was in February and March and that has set her back. Otherwise, she could have been in the same stage what she was last year,” he added.
India’s foreign coach Galina Bukharina had also shown concern about the same in the past. After coming from the break, Das was forced to pull out of the 400m heats at the Asian Championship owing to back pain before she competed in the 4x400m relay squad at the World Relay meet in Japan. The Indian team finished 17th among the 21 competitors.
However, India’s first world U-20 gold medalist still has until September 6 to qualify for the World Championship and could be seen participating in two or three more events in Europe.
“She will run two or three competitions more. She has time till September 6. We don’t know exactly what level the competitions will be, but let us see. Hima still has time to qualify for the individual 400 metres. Yet, if she can’t she will be part of the relay team. The Indian men, women and mixed 4×400m relay teams as on date have qualified for the World Championships,” Nair added.
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