Hima Das Wins India’s First Gold in the World Under-20 Championship! 400m Race Winner Says ’Thank You for the Support India'

While the world of sports yesterday was talking about India vs England and the heroics of Croatia at the 2018 FIFA World Cup, this 18-year-old girl from Assam Hima Das, was on her way to script history in Finland. The youngster who participated in the 400-metre event at the IAAF World U20 Championships clinched a gold medal for India in the 400 meters event. Das registered the time of 51.46 seconds in the final at the Retina Stadium thus went on to become the first Indian athlete to win gold in a world championship across all age groups.

After winning the medal, Hima Das thanked the Indians for the massive support. "I am very happy to win the gold in the World Junior Championships. I want to thank all the Indians back home and also those, who were here cheering me. It was very encouraging to have this kind of support,” she said.

She went on to beat Romania'sAndrea Miklos who clinched a silver medal and clocked the personal best time of 52.07 seconds. Taylor Manson of the US registered 52.28 seconds to finish third. With this, Hima now joins the javelin star of India Neeraj Chopra, who won a gold in Poland in the last edition in 2016 in a world record effort.

Prior to this, Seema Punia in 2002 has clinched a bronze medal in the discus throw. Whereas, Navjeet Kaur Dhillon won a bronze in the same sport for India in 2014. Back in April, Hima had participated in the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games where she clocked 51.32 seconds and finished sixth. Post this, she improved her timings immensely.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 13, 2018 09:21 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).