Another post is being shared on social media claiming that Indian sprinter Hima Das recently broke the record of India’s iconic sprinter Milka Singh. This post claims that all media news channels ignored Hima Das’s achievement as she belongs to a scheduled caste community. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Indian sprinter Hima Das broke the record of Milkha Singh.
Fact: Indian sprinter Hima Das participated in the women’s 200m race and 4x100m relay at the CWG 2022. Hima Das missed out on the qualification for the Women’s 200m final by 0.02s and India’s women’s 4x100m relay team finished in the fifth position at the CWG 2022. As of now, Hima Das did not break any of the records of Milkha Singh. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
When we searched to check whether Indian sprinter Hima Das broke any of the athletic records of Milkha Singh, we could not find any reports confirming this. On searching for further sources, we found the individual best athletic records of Milkha Singh and Hima Das on the ‘Olympics.com’ website. According to the details provided on the ‘Olympics.com’ website, Milkha Singh still has better records compared to Hima Das. Milkha Singh holds the record of completing a 200m race in 20.7 seconds, while Hima Das has a personal best of 22.88 seconds in the 200m. Milkha Singh still holds better records in 400m race and 4x400m relay when compared to Hima Das.
Indian sprinter Hima Das participated in the women’s 200m race and 4x100m relay held at the CWG 2022. Hima Das missed out on the qualification for the women’s 200m final by 0.02s and India finished fifth in the women’s 4x100m relay at Commonwealth Games 2022. At the CWG 2022 semi-finals, Hima Das completed the 200m race in 23.42 seconds.
Indian athlete Paramjit Singh broke Milkha Singh’s 400m national record in 1998, 38 years after the Milkha set it in the Rome Olympics. Milkha Singh’s hand-timed 45.6 seconds record was converted to 45.74 seconds in electronic timing, which Paramjit bettered by running in 45.70 seconds in 1998.
Earlier, when a video of Hima Das winning 400m race at IAAF World U20 Championships Tampere 2018 went viral as the video of her winning the gold in CWG 2022, Factly debunked this claim.
To sum it up, Hima Das did not break any of the records of India’s iconic sprinter Milkha Singh.
