Hima Das’ Tokyo 2020 dreams suffer body blow

Sprinter Hima Das is unlikely to be a part of the upcoming Tokyo Olympics after she failed to meet the qualification mark in any of her events.

The recently concluded Inter State athletics championships in Patiala was her final chance to make the Tokyo cut before the qualification window ended on June 29.

Hima Das’ final chance, however, was dealt a body blow after the 21-year-old injured her hamstring during the 100m heats, where she finished third with a timing of 12.01s - well outside the Tokyo qualification time of 11.15s.

The injury forced Hima Das to pull out of the 100m finals and also saw her sit out of the 4x100m women’s relay.

In Hima Das’ absence, the relay team of Dutee Chand, AK Daneshwari, Archana Suseendran and Dhanalakshmi Sekar failed to breach the qualification mark despite winning the gold medal in the event.

The quartet needed to complete its run in 43.03s or less to break into the top 16 of World Athletics’ Race to Tokyo rankings and qualify for the July Summer Games. The team could only manage 44.15s.

With no individual quotas under her belt and the women’s 4x100m relay team failing to make the Tokyo cut, Hima Das made a desperate final attempt to qualify for Tokyo during the 200m finals at the Inter State meet.

Running with a hamstring injury, Hima Das could only manage a 25.03s, well short of the automatic qualification mark of 22.80s.

The injury proved detrimental for the Assamese sprinter, who ran her 200m personal best of 22.88s at the Indian Grand Prix 4 on June 21, missing out on a Tokyo spot by just 0.08s.

Hima Das still has an outside chance of making it to Tokyo if the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) decides to name her in the mixed 4x400m relay team, which has confirmed a Tokyo berth. She, however, needs to recover from her injury first.

Hima Das is the current national record holder in women’s 400m.