Hima Das Still Open To Running 400m, Says Will "Surely Do It"

Star sprinter Hima Das is not ruling out a return to 400m, an event which shot her to fame in 2018, and is hoping to make a comeback to the quartermile in the now-postponed Asian Games, which is likely to be held next year. The 22-year-old 'Dhing Express' last ran a major 400m race during the Asian Championships in Doha in April 2019. She pulled out of that race midway due to a lower back injury.

She later ran two 400m races in low-grade events in Czech Republic in 2019, but since then, has not featured in the one-lap race. She also missed the World Championships in the later part of 2019 due to the back injury.

Hima, who became the first Indian to win a global track event title by clinching gold in the World Junior Championships in 2018, first suffered the injury during the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta where she won an individual 400m silver and gold medals in the 4x400m and mixed 4x400m relays.

After returning from the injury lay-off, Hima has been running 100m and 200m. She holds the national record of 50.79 seconds in 400m.

"I have not cut (off) running the 400m. It (recovery from injury) is a long process. During my injury time, I was not being able to run 400m because a lot of pressure developed on the right side of my back," Hima said after winning the 100m gold in the National Inter-Sate Championships here with her personal best time of 10.43s.

"My L4 and L5 (two lowest vertebrae in the lumbar spine) were broken and was in a different position. Whenever I run it affects me. Then I did my physiotherapy and ran 30m, 40m, 50m, 100m and then 200m gradually. Till 300m, I am fine. I ran 300m in Europe sometime earlier.

"You need to pick up speed in the last 100m (of 400m) and when I did that once I had to be taken to