Fast rising Indian sprinter Hima Das will start as favourite to win the women's 400m race gold in the IAAF World Under-20 Athletics Championships which begin here tomorrow.
It is a rare occasion that an Indian sprinter lines up in a global championship as the one to beat, with the the 18-year-old Das being the U-20 season leader in this quartermile event.
If the Assam girl, who runs in the the heats tomorrow, happens to win the gold, she will become the first Indian athlete to do so in a track event in an U-20 World Championships.
Star Indian javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra had won a gold in the last edition of this championship in Poland in 2016 with a world junior record effort which still stands to his name.
Das clocked an Indian U-20 record of 51.32 seconds to finish sixth in the Commonwealth Games 400m final in Gold Coast in April. Since then, she has gone onto improving her timings. She lowered the Indian U-20 record in 400m to 51.13 seconds while winning gold in the recent National Inter State Championships in Guwahati.
Asked if she can lower the national record of 51.05 which stands in the name of Manjit Kaur of Punjab since 2004, Das had said, "I have not thought about it, we will see."
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