Hima Das pens emotional note following Neeraj Chopra's success; Kiren Rijiju responds

The date, August 7 will be forever remembered by Indian sports fans for the history created by India's javelin star Neeraj Chopra. The Haryana youngster won the gold medal in the Javelin event at Tokyo 2020 on Saturday, becoming the second athlete to do so and the first in the track and field event. While the entire nation celebrated the success, another athlete Hima Das penned down an emotional note. She congratulated Chopra for his success and thanked former sports minister Kiren Rijiju for his effort.

Tokyo Olympics 2020: Hima Das pens emotional note following Neeraj Chopra's success

Hima Das missed the flight to the Tokyo Olympics 2020 event after failing to qualify for the event. However, the sprinter from Asam still celebrated the success of other Indian athletes who won medals and while speaking to Republic Network said that India should be more open-minded in approaching the preparation of such international events. She also did not forget to mention Kiren Rijiju's constant support. She also penned down an emotional note on India's Olympic success. Here's what Hima Das wrote - 

Kiren Rijiju while responding to the tweet said that he was emotional on finding out that she will miss Tokyo Olympics 2020 due to injury, however the former sports minister gave confidence to Das stating that will be ready for 2024 Olympics in Paris.

Hima Das' injury

The 21-year-old injured her hamstring during the 100m heats, where she finished third with a timing of 12.01s - well outside the Tokyo qualification time of 11.15s. The injury forced Hima Das to pull out of the 100m finals and also saw her sit out of the 4x100m women’s relay.  With no individual quotas under her belt and the women’s 4x100m relay team failing to make to the Tokyo cut, Hima Das made a desperate final attempt to qualify for Olympics during the 200m finals at the Inter State meet.

Running with a hamstring injury, Hima Das could only manage a 25.03s, well short of the automatic qualification mark of 22.80s. The injury proved detrimental for the Assamese sprinter, who ran her 200m personal best of 22.88s at the Indian Grand Prix 4 on June 21, missing out on a Tokyo spot by just 0.08s.

India's performance in Tokyo Olympics 2020

In the ongoing Tokyo Olympics 2020, India won seven medals across various events. The athletes who won the medal at the event were Neeraj Chopra (Gold), Bajrang Punia (Bronze), Mirabai Chanu (silver), PV Sindhu (bronze), Lovlina Borgohain (bronze), men's hockey team ( bronze), and Ravi Kumar Dahiya (silver).