SportsPosted at: Sep 28 2026 10:39PM


Asian Games Day 9 Top Performer: Vithya Ramraj

BD Narayankar
Aichi-Nagoya, Sept 28 (UNI) Forty-two years is a long time for any record to survive. In Indian athletics, P.T. Usha’s 55.42 seconds in the 400m hurdles had begun to look less like a mark on a stopwatch and more like a monument. On Monday, Vithya Ramraj did what generations before her had failed to do — she knocked it down.
The 28-year-old ran 54.75 seconds for bronze, slicing 0.67 seconds off Usha’s national record and, in the process, giving India’s biggest medal day at the Asian Games its most resonant moment.
Vithya had already equalled the mark at Hangzhou in 2023, but the record refused to yield. Three years later, after the familiar questions about when she would break 55 seconds, she finally had her answer: run faster.
Her coach Nehpal Singh Rathore had given her a simple instruction — forget the medal and chase the clock. Vithya obliged. She attacked after the sixth hurdle and kept going until there was nothing left in the tank. The medal came almost as a by-product; the real prize was the number flashing on the clock.
That is what sets Vithya apart from the other Indian medallists on a day when the country collected eight medals. Yash Vir Singh and Rohit Yadav produced a memorable javelin double, Gulveer Singh ran a personal best for 1500m silver, Murali Sreeshankar won silver despite injury, Parul Chaudhary added another bronze, while Esha Singh took 25m pistol silver and Pincky Balhara secured a historic kurash bronze. All were significant performances. Vithya’s, however, had history waiting at the finish line.
There was also something almost poetic about the occasion. Usha’s record was set at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics and survived long after the athlete herself had moved into administration and public life. Now, with Usha associated with the Games, the woman who had once chased her record had finally overtaken it. Records, like reputations, eventually meet their successor.
Vithya’s job is not finished. The bronze was her second medal at Aichi-Nagoya after the mixed 4x400m relay silver and fifth Asian Games medal overall. She has already said she wants three medals, with the women’s 4x400m relay still to come.
UAE’s Mariam Kareem won gold in an Asian Games record 54.31 seconds, with Kazakhstan’s Adelina Zems taking silver in 54.58.
Anu Raghavan finished fifth in 55.88.
For one evening, though, the medal table was almost incidental. The clock had finally told Vithya what she had been waiting three years to hear — and Usha’s 42-year-old record had finally stopped ticking.
UNI BDN
Tags: #Asian Games Day 9 Top Performer: Vithya Ramraj
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Asian Games Day 9 Top Performer: Vithya Ramraj

28 Sep 2026 | 10:39 PM

BD Narayankar
Aichi-Nagoya, Sept 28 (UNI) Forty-two years is a long time for any record to survive. In Indian athletics, P.T. Usha’s 55.42 seconds in the 400m hurdles had begun to look less like a mark on a stopwatch and more like a monument. On Monday, Vithya Ramraj did what generations before her had failed to do — she knocked it down.

see more..