Ace Sprinter Hima Das becomes one of youngest nominees to be nominated for Khel Ratna!

New Delhi, June 16: India's ace sprinter Hima Das has been recommended for the highest sporting honor Rajiv Khel Ratna Award by the state government of Assam. With this, she became one of the youngest nominees for Khel Ratna this year.

 

Assam sports secretary Dulal Chandra Das sent the letter of recommendation to the sports ministry on June 5. The 20-year-old hailing from Dhing village in Assam is India’s first track athlete to win a global title at U20 World Championship in Tampere, Finland in 2018 clocking 51.46 seconds.

  

Das continued her success in 2019 winning the 200m gold in Poznan Athletics Grand Prix in Poland, on 2 July 2019, with a time of 23.65 seconds. Later on, she went on to clinch a 200m gold at the Kladno Athletics Meet in the Czech Republic with a time of 23.43 seconds. Further, she achieved her third gold in a month, and fifth gold, in her 400-meter race in Nové Město, the Czech Republic completing the race in 52.09 seconds.

 

Das was also invited to compete at the Doha World Championship but a back injury ruled her out of the prestigious championship.

 

Hima is already a recipient of the Arjuna Award, which she received in 2018. She will be competing with ace javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra, wrestler Vinesh Phogat, paddler Manika Batra, women’s hockey captain Rani Rampal and cricketer Rohit Sharma for Khel Ratna.