At Dhing village in central Assam's Nagaon district, some 150 km from here, farmer Ranjit Das and his wife Jonali are the centre of huge attraction. There's a surge of media persons at this remote village because the couple's daughter, Hima, made history on Thursday night when she became the first Indian woman to win a gold medal at an international track event.

Teenager Hima Das, 18, clocked 51.46 seconds to run away, quite literally, with the top prize in the 400m final at the IAAF World U-20 Athletics Championships in Tampere, Finland. It may have been all joyous yesterday, but on Thursday night, dad Ranjit and mom Jonali were a bundle of nerves as their daughter took to the starting line around 10:40pm India time.