Hima Das (women's 400m), Muhammed Anas (men's 400m) and Dutee Chand (women's 100m) each won silver in their respective events to add to India's athletics medals tally at the Asian Games on Sunday.
Hima Das won silver in the women's 400m event with a new national record with a timing of 50.79 seconds. Pre-race favourite Salwa Naser won gold with a new Games record timing of 50.09, while Nirmala Sheoran narrowly missed out on a bronze, clocking 52.96. Muhammed Anas also won silver in the men's in 400m with a timing of 45.69. Anas finished behind Qatar's Abdalelah Hassan, who clocked 44.89, while the other Indian in the fray, Arokia Rajiv, missed bronze, finishing fourth with a timing of 45.84. Dutee Chand won silver in a photo-finish in the women's 100m, with a timing of 11.32, just 0.02 seconds behind winner Edidiong Odiong.
Meanwhile, Govindan Lakshmanan, who finished third with a timing of 29:44.91 in men's 10,000m, was disqualified and missed out on a bronze.
Hima Das' performance in the heats bore all the signs of something special ahead. Clocking 51.00, she went past Manjit Kaur's 14-year old national record (51.05) set in Chennai. Only Bahrain's Salwa Naser, who topped the heats on Saturday with a Games record timing of 50.86, came into the competition with a superior personal best of 49.08 to Hima's 51.13, which the latter timed in Guwahati at the Inter-state nationals in June this year.
Asian Games 2018 | Schedule | Results | Medals tally | Highlights
"I dont know how fast I can go. I don't think about how fast I need to go. When a runner runs, they don't think who is close or who is ahead or behind. We are just running," Hima told ESPN about the pressure of competing for gold with a world champion medallist in Naser. "She is a great player, a big player and to race against her twice, I learnt some things. How she runs with technique, that is what you see. I started only two years ago as an athlete. I've done well and [against] the big athletes at Commonwealth Games and Asian Games, running with them, you learn a lot. Every competition I know that you will have good competitors and I don't think about that -- I just think I should record my best time."
A month ago, Hima, 18, had become the first Indian track athlete to win a gold medal with a timing of 51.46 at the Under-20 World Athletics Championships. At the Commonwealth Games earlier this year, Hima finished sixth, competing against a stiff field of seasoned athletes. The 400m event is considered to be among the most demanding track events, requiring the speed of a sprinter and the endurance of a half-miler so the key lies in good pace, judgement in effort and distribution in the most efficient manner over the total running distance.
Daughter of a marginal rice farmer in Assam's Dhing village, Hima is the youngest of five siblings. She started out as a stubborn footballer in the muddy field of her school and even starred as a striker for local club matches, briefly nurturing dreams of playing the sport for the national side. It was only in 2016 that she tried her hand at athletics on the insistence of her PE teacher and won a surprise bronze in the 100m event at the state championships with little training or understanding of tactics. It was to be the beginning of a glorious success story.
"I'm happy with the silver"
Anas came into Sunday's final having topped the list of qualifiers with a timing of 45.63 ahead of Qatari Mohamed Abbas, who finished in 45.81 seconds. At the Commonwealth Games earlier this year, the 23-year-old from Kerala had missed a bronze by hairs-breadth, clocking 45.31 and falling short of a bronze by 0.02. It was also a historic appearance since Anas became only the first Indian since Milkha Singh in 1958 to compete in the final. The steady drizzle, Anas was to admit later, tightened up his muscles and turned his body stiff, affecting his race.
"My aim was to get a medal, the colour of the medal doesn't matter. I am happy I got a silver. There were some issues at the start of the start of the season. I wanted to train with my personal coach PV Jayakumar, but they asked me to attend the Indian camp. Anyway, I am happy I could end the season in a better way," Anas said after the race.
Rajiv, who finished sixth in Saturday's semifinals with a timing of 46.08, was first thrust into focus after his Asian Games bronze medal four years ago. He previously competed in long jump before switching focus to the 400m event. Son of a driver near Tiruchirappalli in Tamil Nadu, Rajiv began his journey in the sport with borrowed spikes.
Dutee marks Asiad debut with gold
With a personal best of 11.09s set in Almaty, Kazakhstan in 2016, this was Dutee's maiden appearance at the Asian Games after she was left out of the team and slapped with a ban four years go over the hyperandrogenism row. In the semifinals on Sunday, Dutee clocked 11.43 behind Olga Safronova (11.42s) and Hajar Alkhaldi (11.43s). Dutee missed out on the Commonwealth Games this year despite finishing with a timing of 11.60 and a gold medal at the Federation Cup, the final trials for the Gold Coast event. It was, however, to fall well short of the 11.15 qualifying mark.