Sprinter Hima Das on Tuesday said she is gutted to miss the Tokyo Olympics 2020, but she vowed to make a stronger comeback.
While Hima Das had sustained a hamstring injury while running in the 100m heats, the women's 4x100m team clocked 44.15 seconds in the National Inter-State Athletics Championships and it was outside the targeted time of 43.03 seconds.
"I will miss my first Olympics due to untimely injury when I was close to achieve the qualification standard in my new event 100m and 200m. I would like to thank my coaches, support staff and my teammates for their continuous support. But I will make a strong comeback and looking forward to Commonwealth Games 2022, Asian Games 2022 and World Championship 2022," said Hima in a statement posted on her Twitter account.
Earlier, Kiren Rijiju, the Union Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports, had said that he spoke to sprinter Hima and told her to not lose heart on missing the upcoming Tokyo Olympics.
"Injuries are part & parcel of athlete's life. I spoke to @HimaDas8 and told her not to lose heart on missing the Olympics #Tokyo2020 and prepare for 2022 Asian Games, 2022 Commonwealth Games, and 2024 Paris Olympics," tweeted Rijiju.
The Athletics Federation of India (AFI) on Monday announced a 26-member team to compete in the Tokyo Olympics. The athletics events at the Olympics start on July 31.
Dutee Chand (women's 100m and 200m), MP Jabir (men's 400m Hurdles), Gurpreet Singh (men's 50km race walk) and Annu Rani (women's Javelin Throw) are assured of entries on the strength of their rankings.
The squad: Men: Avinash Sable (3000m Steeplechase); MP Jabir (400m Hurdles): M Sreeshankar (Long Jump); Tajinderpal Singh Toor (Shot Put); Neeraj Chopra and Shivpal Singh (Javelin Throw); KT Irfan, Sandeep Kumar and Rahul Rohilla (20km Walk) and Gurpreet Singh (50km Walk); 4x400m Relay: Amoj Jacob, Arokia Rajiv, Muhammed Anas, Naganathan Pandi, Noah Nirmal Tom; 4x400m Mixed Relay: Sarthak Bhambri, Alex Antony
Women: Dutee Chand (100m and 200m); Kamalpreet Kaur and Seema Antil-Punia (Discus Throw) and Annu Rani (Javelin Throw); Bhawna Jat and Priyanka Goswami (20km Walk) and (Mixed 4x400m Relay): Revathi Veeramani, Subha Venkatesan & Dhanlakshmi Sekhar.
( With inputs from ANI )
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