Hima Das (born 9 January 2000) is an Indian sprinter from Assam, known as the Dhing Express. In July 2018 she won the 400 metres at the World Under-20 Championships in Finland, becoming the first Indian athlete to win a gold medal in a track event at any global championship. She holds the Indian record for the 400 metres and won three medals at the 2018 Asian Games.
Quick Facts
| Full name | Hima Das |
| Born | 9 January 2000, Kandhulimari, near Dhing, Nagaon district, Assam |
| Age | 26 |
| Sport | Athletics (200 and 400 metres) |
| Personal best | 50.79 seconds for 400 metres (2018), the Indian record |
| Major medals | World Under-20 Championships gold (2018); Asian Games gold, 4×400 m relay and mixed relay, and silver, 400 m (2018) |
| Awards | Arjuna Award (2018) |
| Other | Deputy Superintendent of Police, Assam Police |
Early Life
She was born in a village near the town of Dhing, the youngest of the children of Ronjit Das, a rice farmer, and Jonali. She grew up playing football with the boys in the mud of the paddy fields and hoped to play for India.
A physical education teacher at her school advised her to try running. She won medals at district and state level without proper shoes or track. In 2016 a coach, Nipon Das, saw her at a camp and persuaded her parents to let her move to Guwahati, 150 kilometres away, where he and Nabajit Malakar trained her.
Career
Rise
She began by running the 100 and 200 metres. In early 2018 she moved up to the 400 metres and at once ran times of international class. At the Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast in April 2018, she reached the final and finished sixth.
Tampere, 2018
On 12 July 2018, at the World Under-20 Championships at Tampere in Finland, she was fourth coming into the final straight of the 400 metres and overtook three runners to win in 51.46 seconds. Pictures of her crying on the podium as the anthem played were shown throughout India.
Asian Games, 2018
At Jakarta in August she ran 50.79 seconds, a national record, to take the silver medal in the 400 metres. She won gold with the women’s 4×400 metres relay team, and silver in the first mixed 4×400 metres relay, later upgraded to gold when the winning team was disqualified for doping.
Five golds
In July 2019 she won five races in less than three weeks at meetings in Poland and the Czech Republic, in the 200 and 400 metres.
Injury and after
A back injury kept her out of the 2019 World Championships and troubled her for several seasons. She did not qualify for the Tokyo Olympics. She turned mainly to the 200 metres, in which she ran 22.88 seconds in 2021.
In 2023 the anti-doping authorities provisionally suspended her for failing to file her whereabouts on three occasions, a rule that allows testers to find athletes. A disciplinary panel cleared her in March 2024 and she returned to racing the next month; an appeal panel upheld that decision, though the agency’s records later showed a suspension backdated to end in November 2024.
Honours
- Arjuna Award (2018)
- Named UNICEF India’s first youth ambassador (2018)
- Sports ambassador of Assam
Police Officer
In February 2021 the Government of Assam appointed her a Deputy Superintendent of Police. She has said that joining the police was a childhood wish of her mother’s.
Personal Life
She has remained close to her village, where she is known for having led a campaign as a schoolgirl against illegal liquor shops. In 2019 she gave half her month’s salary to flood relief in Assam.
Featured image: Hima Das in a photograph published in January 2021. Photo by Sesuajd, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
