Vithya Ramraj won a bronze medal in the women’s 400m hurdles at the 2026 Asian Games in Japan, finishing in 54.75 seconds and breaking P.T. Usha’s 42-year national record of 55.42 seconds. Usha had set the record at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles when she finished one-hundredth of a second behind Romania’s Cristieana Cojocaru for the bronze medal, coming painfully close to giving India its first Olympic medal in a track event.
Ramraj, 28, a native of Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, had equaled Usha’s mark during a preliminary heat at the 2023 Asian Games in Hangzhou, China, where she also won bronze. Three years later, she improved her personal best by two-thirds of a second. “Setting the record is a proud moment, but I know there is more to achieve,” she told The Hindu. “I want to compete strongly at the international level and aim for better performances at the upcoming World Championships and Olympic Games.”
Compiled and partly written by Indian humorist MELVIN DURAI, author of the novel Bala Takes the Plunge. [Comments? Contributions? Please email us at melvin@melvindurai.com. We welcome jokes, quotes, online clips, and more.]