#SoProud: Amazing Things You Did Not Know About 18-Year-Old Athlete Hima Das!

Hima Das, an 18-year-old athlete who comes from the Dhing Village of Assam, made the whole country proud by achieving India’s first gold medal on the track. On Thursday, Hima clinched the top spot in the women’s 400m final race in the IAAF World Under-20 Athletics Championships. No wonder, well-deserved congratulations from all over the country are flooding in for this little champion!

Hima Das started slow but in the last 80m she showed her blazing run and won by overtaking three rivals. Making it a historic gold for India, Hima clocked 51.46s to win. However, this wasn’t her personal best, she has performed better in past. Yup, there’s a lot more to this young athlete. Here are some amazing things you should know about Hima Das and the records she has created.

1. Hima Das use to do her training in her father’s rice fields but she only took up racing seriously two years back.

2. She already has a U-20 record of clocking 51.32 seconds in 400m in Commonwealth games in Gold coast.

3. But she won her National State Championships in Guwahati by clocking 51.13 seconds. That’s her personal best… so far!

4. No Indian woman before Hima Das has won a gold in World Championship on any level, be it youth, junior or senior.

hima das running on the track with Indian flag

5. She’s the first Indian track athlete to win a medal in the history of this championship.

6. Hima’s coach Nipon Das revealed that he wasn’t worried about her not being in the top three at the final curve as he knew her game begins in the last 80m.

7. Hima’s sports obsession began with football.

8. The teenager was spotted by an athletics coach with the Directorate of Sports and Youth Welfare. He arranged for her to stay near Sarusajai Sports Complex for training.

9. Nipon Das always advices Hima Das to “Dream Big”.

In other shocking news, Federation’s tweet that focused more on her English more than her winning moment is annoying many.

#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

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.https://t.co/kQW3YnTLFX

— Sankrant Sanu सानु (@sankrant) July 13, 2018