Sportswear giant Adidas now manufactures custom-made shoes for Hima Das with her name printed on them but country’s top quarter-miler on Sunday revealed that there was a time when she had to write the famous brand name manually on her sub-standard spikes.

“When I started running, I ran barefoot. But in my first Nationals, my father brought running shoes with spikes on them. It was just a normal pair of running shoes. I wrote ‘Adidas’ on the shoes with my hand. You never know what fate can do, Adidas is now making shoes with my name,” the 20-year-old said in an Instagram chat with cricketer Suresh Raina.

After Hima won the 400m gold in the 2018 World U-20 Championships in Finland, the top German brand roped her as its brand ambassador and later made custom-made shoes for her that has her name on one side and ‘create history’ on the other.

She said “people started following athletics more than ever after the 2018 Asian Games” in Indonesia where she won a silver in individual 400m and a gold each in women’s 400m and mixed 400m relay races.

Extra motivation

“People know the athletes and fans chant your name, it gives you extra motivation,” the Assamese athlete, known as “Dhing Express” due to her native town, said.

She said she now gets more time to prepare for the Tokyo Games.

Hima also revealed Sachin Tendulkar is her role model and meeting the cricket icon was the best moment of her life.