Teenage track sensation Hima Das, who set a national record women’s 400m at the 2018 Asian Games and won three medals to blend it with her historic IAAF U-20 World Championship gold medal compared her false start at the intercontinental event with that of Usain Bolt’s in 2011.
Hima won a silver in the 400m event creating a national record with a 50.79 seconds timing to overtake the previous record of 51.00s, which was also set by her on the previous day. She had in the final qualifiers broken a 14-year-old Indian record to create a new one.
She then won the gold 4x400m women’s relay team event and another silver in the mixed relay event, but failed to bag a medal in 200m after she was disqualified for a false start.
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“It (false starts) can happen to any player, even Usain Bolt,” she told TOI referring to Bolt’s disqualification in the 100m final at the World Championships in Daegu, where he was disqualified after making a false start.
Hima was attending a felicitation programme in Guwahati, where she opened up on what actually transpired in her mind that eventually led to her disqualification at the start of the race.
“There was some pressure,” she admitted. There was the relay race after an hour. A player needs recovery time and it isn’t possible to recover from one race in an hour. That was playing on my mind, even at the start line.”
But she also added that there was an unusual gap of 2-3 seconds that made the difference.
“I heard the gun-fire before it actually happened, but I felt there was a hold of 2-3 seconds after the umpire said ‘set’. Usually, it’s just 1-2 seconds, but I think it was a touch more that day,” she told the national daily.
Earlier, she had alleged that the argument she had with two people from Assam ahead of her 200m semi-final played on her mind and affected her race. However, she later admitted that those allegations came in the heat of the moment and that she holds no grudge against anyone.
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