NEW DELHI: Indian sprinter
Hima Das scripted history on Thursday as she clinched the gold medal in the 400m final - at the IAAF World Under-20
Athletics Championships in Tampere, Finland - becoming the first Indian athlete to do so in a track event.
The 18-year-old Das clocked 51.46 seconds to claim the top position. Andrea Miklos of Romania came second with a timing of 52.07 seconds to claim silver while USA's Taylor Manson took home broze after clocking 52.28 seconds.
Das had also led the overall time charts in the semifinals with a timing of 52.10 seconds on Wednesday. She also finished the first round heats on Tuesday
clocking 52.25 seconds.
The Assam girl 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 recently-concluded National Inter State Championships in Guwahati.
Earlier on Wednesday, Gaurav failed to progress further as he finished fifth in men's 400m heat and 42nd overall with a time of 48.61. There was also disappointment in the men's long jump final where M Shreeshankar finished sixth with the best jump of 7.75m.
She now joins the illustrious company of star javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra, who won a gold in Poland in the last edition in 2016 in a world record effort.
The other medal winners at the World Junior Championships were Seema Punia (bronze in discus in 2002) and Navjeet Kaur Dhillon (bronze in discus in 2014).
Hima Das celebrates winning gold in the final of the women's 400m at the IAAF World U-20 Championships. (Getty Images)
