Hyderabad: On Saturday Hima Das won her fifth gold medal since July 2. Extending her golden run the Assam girl created a new record while running in her first 400m event after more than four months at the Mezinarodni Atleticky Mitnik. Hima clocked 52.09 in an all-India final to clinch her fifth successive gold medal within 20 days. Earlier, she emerged victorious in Poznan Athletics Grand Prix (200m), Mityng o Rozo Kutna (200m), 'hazi a Kladenske memorialy' (200m) and Velka cena Tabora (200m).
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Her dream run in Central Europe helped her grab the attention of masses back in the country. She is being seen as India's one of the biggest medal prospects for the 2020 Olympics. But, it will be wise to take a closer look at the competitions she has taken part in before giving her a world champion's treatment. Given the standard of these competitions, gold is the only medal she could have won.
19-year-old, who is better known as Dhing Express, is a great talent and there is no doubt about it. She has proved her worth home and away conditions over the years. She is the junior world champion in 400m and a national record holder in the event. At the same time, her two gold medal hauls at the Asian Games showed that she has the potential to be a remarkable athlete.
Her recent golden run may make people feel proud of her, but it doesn't reveal her actual potential as a sprinter. Yes, she did her best and excelled in all competitions but they can't be used as a parameter for success as they lack the standard of top-notch international competitions.
In the four 200m events, nobody has higher personal best than South Africa's Tamzin Thomas who notched 23.12 seconds. In the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) recognised top-notch events, 86 women athletes have finished with a better record than Thomas.
In 'hazi a Kladenske memorialy' at Kaldano, Hima finished first among four athletes. Two of them even failed to start the event.
In her pet event, 400m, 17 athletes weren't even 200m runners which downgraded Hima's achievement.
However, this is just the one side of the story, but the other side is even more expressive as it revealed the standard of the competitions Hima participated in. The IAAF recognises 10 categories of events ranked from highest to lowest- OW (The best), DF, GW, FL, A, B, C, D, E and F (The Worst). The Poznan Athletics Grand Prix (200m) and Mityng o Rozo Kutna (200m) are rated 'F' by the IAAF while the 'hazi a Kladenske memorialy' (200m) and Velka cena Tabora (200m) are rated 'E'.
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The 400m event that Hima won on Saturday is rated as 'E' category event by the IAAF. So, it will not be out of place to say that these competitions can't tell us about the actual potential of Hima at this juncture. To know about her actual ability we have to wait till World Athletics Championship 2019 which is scheduled to take place in September-October.
As of now, these events are better catering in Hima's preparation for a bigger goal.
