With Hima Das, Elle frames shining faces of India achieving success with hardwork

NewsBharati    08-Dec-2018
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New Delhi, December 8: Hima Das, Dutee Chand, Anjum Moudgil, MR Poovamma, Vinesh Phogat—these new-gen stars who have shined their images on the digital cover of Elle India’s magazine have set their own rules and inspired hundreds of girls around the country to take up sports. Their stories are known: all of them were up against more than just the tape at the finishing line or the gong at the end of each round. But they took time and convention in their hands and gave them a bloody good shakedown.

 

MR Poovamma, Hima Das, Sarita Gayakwad and VK Vismaya are among Asia’s fastest runners in the quarter mile. The ruthlessly assembled quartet from Karnataka, Assam, Gujarat, and Kerala respectively, won the Asian Games gold in the 1,600-metre relay at just short of a record, with a timing of 3 minutes and 28.72 seconds. Each of them is yet capable of improving their individual 400-meter timings.

The relay team is centered around and anchored by MR Poovamma, the most experienced runner, whom the other three look up to. She has been on the track for 16 years, and has won the Junior Nationals event in 2002 and represented India at the Asian Games, Commonwealth Games, and the Olympics.

Hima is the fastest. “I don’t have any timing as my aim. I want to improve my timing every time I run,” says India’s champion 400-metre runner. After she ran the opening lap of the 1,600-metre relay at the Jakarta Asian Games, opening up a lead, which would give Indian women the gold, the world turned its attention to the might of this girl. She then won the silver in the 400 metres at 50.56 seconds. Hima carries India’s hope for a track medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, though there is some catching up to do to reach near the 49-second mark, which will clinch her the medal.

 

The foursome are in Patiala, preparing for the world championships mid-next year. The next target is Tokyo. If she makes it to the team it will be Poovamma’s third Olympics outing. All four are delighted with their new coach, 75-year-old Russian Galima Bukharina, an Olympic silver medallist. Any question about their timings and relay strategy and they all say, “Coach will decide” or “coach will tell us”.

 

All they know is that when the baton passes from one outstretched hand to the other, their dreams and fates merge together, and that is the moment they live for.