2019-08-03_Outlook

5 August 2019 OUTLOOK 55

Mohan is confident that Hima would crack the

Olympic 400m qualification time of 51.35sec at the

World Championships, where she would get good

competition, like Bahrain’s gold medallist Salwa

Eid Naser provided her at the 2018 Asian Games.

“Hima achieved her career best mark of 50.79 sec

there because of the competitiveness. We are exp­

ecting her to get Olympic qualification at the World

Championships because more competition there

will enable her to realise her full potential,” he says.

Hima’s coaches are trying to arrange her entry in

tougher races so that she could qualify for the

Championships. “We’ve planned a race for her on

August 28. We are trying to get some races in the

IAAF Diamond League in September, so that she

could peak and qualify for the Cham pionships. If

we get visas to go to other countries, we’ll go. We are

trying to go to Jablonec nad Nisou and Kladno in

the Czech Republic because the other countries are

a couple of hours away from there,” informs Mohan.

W

HILE Hima’s career­best 400m performa­

nce came at the Asian Games last year,

her best in 200m was clo cked when she

won gold by beating Dutee Chand and

others at the National Inter State Senior Ath letics

Championships in Guwahati in June 2018.

Guwahati­based Nabajit Malakar, another coach

who works closely with Hima, is also confident of

her ensuring the qualifications. “Her strongest

point is her finish, and she is never bothered by who

all she is competing with. Her thinking is: ‘I have to

run races irrespective of the competition, so why

look at the rivals’. She believes in aiming for good

timings and not medals, because medals would

come automatically if timings are good,” he says.

Meanwhile, Hima and 22 other Indian athletes

are supplementing their training with a

protein­ and carbohydrate­rich diet—

spiced by Indian masalas—at Spala, which

has one of the best training facilities in the world.

“From Delhi we bought some north and south Ind ­

ian spices to give our athletes a taste of our vegeta­

bles once daily. This is because we have to think

about athletes’ motivation, also a part of coaching,”

Mohan avers.

Hima, too, is enjoying the food. “She likes rice and

chicken curries and also likes south Indian food.

Everyone likes chicken curry.... We have instructed

cooks at Spala to add spices as per our athletes’

lik ings. They make curries, like Indian chic ken

cur ries, for us. The diet contains vegetarian, non­

vegetarian food, fruits and salads, soups etc. It’s like

a five­course dinner, at times like a seven­ course

meal,” says Mohan. Nipon informs that Hima her­

self loves to cook mostly boiled food while touring.

“She sends me videos from the kit chen. She loves

cooking meat, chicken, and fish,” he says. Hima and

the other athletes will have to del iver as the World

Championships nears. The pot is boiling. O

Gold: 50 Per Cent, T he Rest To Qualify

medals],” Hima tells Outlook from Pol and.

She is only too aware of the challenges ahead of

the Olympics. In 400 metres, Hima is ranked 87th

in the world; in 200m, she is 122nd; her overall

ranking is 1250. Being a 400m specialist, Hima’s

personal best timing is 50.79 seconds which, con­

sidering how even milliseconds matter in athletics,

is in a different league from her gold­ winning time

in Prague on July 20—52.09 seconds. Also, her

200m personal best is 23.10 seconds, and the best

of her 200m timings in Poland is .15 seconds slower.

Nipon says Hima deliberately didn’t go all­out in

the 400m race on July 20. “She told me after the

race that her confidence has gone up. She is run ning

the 200m races to improve her 400m race, which is

her main event. Her good form will also help the

Indian 4x400m relay team,” he says.

That Hima has still not qualified for the World

Cha mpionships and the Olympics doesn’t worry

her coaches. “She just missed the World Cha­

mpionships 400m qualification timing of 51.80

sec [ by 0.29 sec] as she clocked 52.09 sec at

the Nove Mesto nad Metuji GP. The first

200m was a little bit slow. Before the race,

I had told her to go for 24.50 sec in the first

200m, but she clocked 25.20 sec. That

created a problem, otherwise she was

very good,” explains Mohan.

HIMA’S LAST FIVE RACES

DATE PLACE EVENT (in seconds)TIMING

July 2 Poznan (Poland) 200 metre 23.65

July 7 Kutno (Poland) 200 metre 23.97

July 13 Kladno (Czech Republic) 200 metre 23.43

July 17 Tabor (Czech Republic) 200 metre 23.25

July 20 Nove Mesto nad Metuji (CR) 400 metre 52.09

MIND THE GAP

200 METRES

Hima’s Best:

23.10 sec

World Championships

best:

21.63 sec

Olympics best:

21.34 sec

400 METRES

Hima’s Best:

50.79 sec

Olympics best:

48.25 sec

World Championships

best:

47.99 sec

up for tests with the world’s best. And she knows it.