World Junior Champion and Asian games silver medalist Hima Das finished 4th in the Indian Grand Prix in her first race of the season shocking her fans as well her coach and raising alarm bells for the Athletic Federation of India.
VK Vismaya won the women's 400m race at the third leg of the Indian Grand Prix athletics championships in Sangrur, Punjab, winning with a time of 53.8 seconds.
Asian Games silver medalist Hima Das came fourth with a time of 55.19 seconds, her slowest time ever in the quarter-mile since she started competing in the event at the Federation Cup 2018. MR Poovamma came in second with a time of 54.06s, while Prachi Choudhary was third in 54.49s.
Notably, this was Hima's first race of the season. She missed the first leg of the IGP in New Delhi due to examinations and also opted out from the second leg.
Hima ran 50.79 seconds at Jakarta Asian games where she won Silver. Since she came out of a long lay off due to examinations, her coach expected she would improve in the next few weeks but expressed concern over her qualification ability in the 2020 Summer Olympics to be held at Tokyo. Although the qualification mark has not yet announced it should be below 50 seconds.
Shockingly she left training and returned to Guwahati again next day and yesterday she was seen with Auniati Xatradhikar seeking land for Stadium.