Her quest to enhance her basic speed will make for interesting watching in 2019. Hima Das arrived unannounced but quickly stormed into millions of Indian hearts. A nation seeking glamorous success in track sport embraced the girl with a trademark swag as a poster girl without pause, without hesitation.

Can Hima, 19, raise the bar in 2019? Of course, she has the potential. How well she deals with life away from the track holds the key to that question. She will have to run with the pressure of expectations that has been imposed on her by her performances in 2018. Having forced the spotlight with a good show in the Commonwealth Games at Gold Coast and with the silver medal in the Asian Games in Jakarta, she has raised hopes among fans of Indian athletics.