Hima Das wins 400m in Federation cup

Hima Das returned to her winning days as she won the 400m event in the Federation cup with 52.88 secs leaving M R Poovamma of Karnataka (53.15) and Sarita Ben of Gujrat 53.23.

This was a classic return to form after six weeks of lay off due to her examination. In her first race of the year on March 8 at the 3rd Indian Grand Prix, she came fourth in the 3rd India Grand Prix.

This time at Patiala, where the Federation cup was being held, Hima scored 54.45 in the heats and then improved to 53.40 in the semi final and yet remained in the fourth position when she took position for the final..

But in the final she blazed the  track and was clear ahead of her rival M R Poovamma by leaving her one and half stride behind.

Hima will now focus on the Asian Athletics championship to be held at Doha from April 26. However Hima is still nowhere near her best timing as she won the silver in the Jakarta Asian Games with a timing of 50.79 secs

Her coach Galiana hopes that if she can keep her focus on then the she could slice away some micro seconds from her best but still it will be way to go to quality to be in the Tokyo 202 Olympics.

With today's run, she also qualifies to take far in the Doha Asian Athletic Championship where the qualifying mark is 52.75 secs.