Guwahati: Former Asian Games gold medallist Bhogeswar Baruah believes that under-20 400m world champion Hima Das can improve her timing if she makes a little technical adjustment to her stride.
Congratulating the 18-year-old for the epochal feat of being the first Indian to bag a medal in an International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) track event by clocking 51.46 seconds, Arjuna awardee Baruah said, "It's a stupendous feat by an Assam athlete from the countryside. It's her sheer dedication and hard work which paid off. This is just the beginning for her. She has a long way to go. The people of Assam have very high hopes from her.
"It was my dream to produce a runner who could take forward my legacy and so I had even set up an academy at Demow (in Upper Assam's Sivasagar district) which I could not sustain because of financial constraints. Hima's feat is a testimony that there is no dearth of talent in Assam. I wish she achieves much more than what we have achieved. And I am always ready to help her," the ailing 77-year-old told The Telegraph from his Sivasagar residence.
An armyman then, Baruah had won the men's 800m gold in the 1966 Bangkok Asian Games.
Appreciating Hima for her humility, Baruah said, "She called me up over phone before leaving for Finland to seek my blessings. I told her I could not watch her perform at Guwahati in the Senior Nationals but have observed on television that she could do better if she practises with her knee a little high to add length to her strides. I advised her to do so and it seems, maybe, she tried to act on it at Tampere.
"I was advised the same by two German experts during my days. I tried it and it worked amazingly. If Hima lifts her knee about an inch more, I am sure she will save at least four to five strides in 400m and it will help her because she is a strong athlete," he said. Hima's career-best timing has been 51.13 seconds which she achieved at the Senior Nationals here a fortnight ago.
Baruah believes Hima's overseas coach Galina Bukharina would also agree with his suggestion.
It has been a meteoric rise for Hima who burst onto the scene in January last year.
