National Open Athletics Championships: Ramraj breaks P.T. Usha’s 39-year-old meet record in 400m hurdles

Vithya Ramraj broke a 39-year-old meet record with an excellent run in the women’s 400m hurdles at the 63rd National Open Athletics Championships at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium here on Monday.

Vithya (56.23s) erased the meet record set by P.T. Usha (56.80s) in 1985.

“P.T. Usha is an absolute legend. Her meet record has stood for so many years. My coach was keen that I break this long-standing record. He wanted my name to be up there on the record list,” Vithya, who won the 400m hurdles bronze at the 2022 Asian Games, said.

Vithya’s coach Nehpal Singh added a bit of extra motivation, promising his ward five days of leave if she could run under 57 seconds. “I’ll use this leave period to spend time with my parents in Coimbatore. I have not seen them in a year,” Vithya said.

In the men’s 200m, Tamil Nadu’s Nithin (20.66s) set a new meet record. The old record was held by Animesh Kujur (20.74s).

Ancy Sojan won the women’s long jump, and was declared the best woman athlete. Ancy’s 6.71-metre leap was just shy of the meet record held by Anju Bobby George (6.74m, 2002).