‘We have a strict regime’
National 400 metres coach Basant Singh on what his star ward has to do going forward
“We had not really thought of coming here. We were training in Prague for the Asian Games. There were some games happening in other parts of the world and I had told my colleagues we shouldn’t take part as it takes a lot of time off our training. Since this event was in Europe and we were in the region, I thought we would come here ”
“Hima is still very naive. She wants to play everything. I have to be very strict with her. Even with her vacations. We were in Assam recently and I told Hima she could go home for one night. It’s all about maintaining a strict regimen. We cannot take any risks now. I have told her, it’s just for one more month. After the Asian Games are over, she can go home for longer. The good thing is she understands. She is also still naive about her earnings. With what she has achieved, she will earn a lot. Apart from the mandatory government allocations for sports achievers, big corporations like the Tatas will come calling when we are back in India. She has no idea about all of this”
“She has been training very hard for a year. Earlier, she was a 100 and 200 metres runner. It has only been a year since she moved to 400 metres. In fact, her performance at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in April (where she came in sixth) impressed me more than her performance here. Here (in Tampere), we were quite sure of the gold. And she showed her mettle”