Hima Das

Hima Das is an Indian sprinter born on 9th January 2000. She hails from the Dhing village of Nagaon district of Assam. She represents India internationally in 400m and 4*400m events.

Background

Hima Das was born to Ronjit Das and Jonali Das. She comes from a family of farmers as both her parents are into farming. Her family belongs to the indigenous Kaibbarta community. She is the youngest among her five siblings. Her father, Ronjit, is a former state-level footballer.

Hima Das studied till 4th standard at the Dhing Public School and moved to Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya where she completed her school education. Hima was initially interested in football and she would often play the sport with the boys at JNV. She wanted to pursue a career in football until her physical education teacher at JNV, Shamshul Sheikh, advised her to take up an individual sport in 2016.

Upon the advice of Shamshul Sheikh, she switched her career to sprinting and began to pursue the sport seriously. Hima first came into the limelight when she won the inter-district competition in 2016. Her performance in the competition caught the eyes of athletic coaches Nipon Das and Nabajit Malakar and urged her to shift to Guwahati for better training facilities.

In 2019, she completed her matriculation. Recently, Hima was appointed as Deputy Superintendent of Police in Assam Police Service.

Rise to Glory

Hima Das’s career switch from football to sprinting has been life-changing for her. Her sprinting instantly took off by winning the Bronze medal in 100m at the State competition and that too without proper training. After she moved to Guwahati, her athletics career began to flourish.

In 2016, Hima competed in a 100m race and reached the final at the Junior National Championships. A year later, she won the Bronze and Silver in 100m and 200m at the School Nationals

In 2018, she won the Bronze and Silver in 200m and 400m events at the U-18 Youth Nationals. In that year, Hima clinched the Gold medal in 200m by clocking 23.10s at the National Inter-State Championships.

In July 2019, she won the Gold medal in 200m with the timing of 23.65s at the Poznan Grand Prix in Poland. In the same month, she won the Gold medal in 200m by clocking 23.43s at the Kladno Meet in the Czech Republic, followed by another Gold medal in a 400m race with the timing of 52.09s in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic.

Major Achievements

Hima Das made her international debut at the 2017 Asian Youth Championship, where she finished 7th in the 200m race by clocking 24.52s in Bangkok, Thailand. Her timing in the event was enough for her to qualify for the World Youth Championships in Nairobi. At the event, she finished 5th in 200m with the timing of 24.31s.

In 2018, Hima Das participated in 400m and 4*400m relay at the Commonwealth Games but failed to bag any medals in either of the events. In July, she clinched her first international Gold medal in 400m by clocking 51.46s at the World Athletics U20 Championships in Tampere, Finland, and became the first athlete to grab the Gold medal at an international athletics event.

At the 2018 Asian Games, in August, she won the Silver medal in 400m by clocking 50.79s (National Record), followed by two Gold medals in 4*400m women’s relay and 4*400m mixed relay with the timings of 3:28.72s and 3:15.71s respectively. In 2019, Hima was selected to compete at the World Athletics Championships but later withdrew from the tournament due to a back injury.

Hima Das is looking to secure her debut Olympics berth at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics by competing in the Asian Relay Championships in April, followed by World Relay Championships in May.