Blow to India's Tokyo hopes as 'Dhing Express' Hima Das suffers injury; trip to Olympics in doubt

Patiala, June 26: Star sprinter Hima Das on Saturday (June 26) suffered an injury scare after sustaining a muscle pull during the 100m heats at the ongoing National Inter-State Athletics Championships here.

However, the severity of her injury could not be ascertained.

"We hope Hima Das recovers ASAP after muscle pull during 100m heats this morning at Inter-State meet," the Athletics Federation informed on its twitter handle.

Hima, who is on the verge of missing out on Tokyo Olympics as she is yet to qualify for the showpiece, did complete the race and finished third in heat 3 with a timing of 12.01 seconds. In the process, she also qualified for the final to be held on Saturday evening, but her participation in the title race is still not confirmed.

If the injury turns out to be serious, it will be a big blow to 4x100m women's relay team's qualification bid for the Tokyo Games as Hima is vital member of the quartet, also comprising Dutee Chand, Dhanalakshmi and Archana Suseendran.

Hima is unlikely to make it to Tokyo if she doesn't make it to the relay team. The start sprinter from Assam, however, is also trying to qualify for the 200m event at the Games.

Hima, who has had a lower injury problem for a long time, ran her personal best of 22.88 seconds in 200m at the IGP 4 but missed the automatic qualification mark of 22.80 seconds. The ongoing meet is the last chance for Hima and Dutee to qualify for the Tokyo Games.