GUWAHATI: Buoyed by teen sprint queen Hima Das’ historic gold-winning feat at the junior world championships in Finland, the Assam Athletics Association is mulling a organised approach to scout raw talent in the towns and villages of the state.
Along with the achievement, Hima also became the first Indian athlete to have won gold in the track and field event of a global event.
The 18-year-old from a small hamlet – Number 3 Kandhulimari at Dhing in Nagaon district – it may be mentioned, was spotted at a camp here in January last year by Nipon Das, her coach and currently the assistant secretary of the association.
But her rise from the muddy playgrounds where she used to play football, to creating history with a podium finish in Finland in just 18 months, has now prompted her mentor along with the association to discuss ways to look for “Himas in the villages”.
“We are discussing the prospect of a systematic scouting drive across the state given that there are many young girls and boys in the villages and towns who have the potential to make it big in track and field,” Nipon Das told The Shillong Times hours before his “student” took the track again for the 4×400 metre relay at Tampere, Finland on Saturday.
The youngest of the siblings and the daughter of a paddy farmer, Hima started off with football, kicking the ball with boys in the mud pits near the rice fields of Dhing, about 140km from here.
Looking back, a proud Nipon reflects, “After spotting her talent, I had convinced her to stay in Guwahati where I had arranged accommodation near the Sarusajai stadium. There was no looking back since and like the state and country, I am proud of her achievements thereafter.”
Despite a slow start at the 400 metres event in Finland on Thursday, her sprint in the final 80metres saw her clock 51.46 seconds for the gold, and also a prized slot in the history books of Indian athletics.
At the Commonwealth Games 400m final in Gold Coast in April, Hima had clocked an Indian under-20 record of 51.32 seconds to finish sixth. Since then, she has gone on to improving her timings. She lowered the Indian under-20 record in 400m to 51.13 seconds while winning gold at the National Inter-State Championships in Guwahati recently.
Asked about Hima’s next goal, Nipon who works with Directorate of Sports and Youth Welfare says, “I have been in touch with her since she has been in Finland. She will take part in the 400 metres, 200 metres and 4×400 metres relay at the Asian Games in Indonesia. I can’t assure you of a medal at the Games next month, which is her next goal, but she said she would continue to work on her sprint and give her best timing.”
Honouring the young girl’s meteoric rise against the odds in such a short span of time and to inspire budding sprinters to follow suit, the Assam government has decided to make Hima the state’s brand ambassador for sports.