On the brink of breaking PT Usha’s 41-year-old record, Vithya Ramraj looking well beyond

Although there were other participants, by the time she had cleared the first of the ten obstacles in the women’s 400m hurdles race at the Federation Cup in Kochi on Wednesday, Vithya Ramraj knew she was essentially running by herself.

“It’s difficult to push yourself in a competition in India. After the first hurdle, I already knew I was in front of everyone else. When that happens, I’m just competing with myself. I don’t have anyone to chase, so I just focus on my own lane. I look to hit each hurdle as hard as possible. And when I’m between them, I only repeat the words ‘speed’ in my mind,” she says.

If she is competing against herself, it could be argued that Vithya did, in a way, lose. She crossed the finish line in 56.04 seconds, nearly three seconds faster than her nearest opponent, but a little over half a second short of her personal best of 55.42.

That mark, incidentally, is also the Indian national record, which Vithya jointly holds. She had clocked it in the heats of the Asian Games in Hangzhou to bring herself level on the Indian charts alongside PT Usha, who had run that same time at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. But although Vithya equalled it, it’s now 41 years since Usha’s mark has been bettered, making it the longest-standing record in women’s athletics in India.

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There’s currently no one apart from Vithya who seems likely to break it. She’s had her opportunities to do it. Her first chance was in the finals of the Asian Games, but she fell short, clocking a time of 55.68. She might have tried once again in 2024 but decided to focus on the flat 400 in the Olympic year to give herself the best shot of qualifying for the Paris Games, which she did in the women’s 4x400m relay. Then, at the ongoing Federation Cup at the Maharaja College Stadium, she was running just a day after she had recorded a season’s best performance in the 400m.

“I would probably have run a bit faster, but I had just run the 400m flat yesterday, so I was a little tight,” she admits.

Could Vithya have skipped the 400m and just run the 400m hurdles?

Yes, if the record set by Usha – who incidentally gives her name to the road where the Maharaja College Stadium is located in Kochi — was on her mind.

Record not the priority

But Vithya says she isn’t bothered about the record. “It’s not a big thing for me to get the national record. I’m looking beyond it now. There’s nothing big about getting the national record when you see what the world level is. Right now, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone won gold at the Olympics with a time of 50.65 (the Asian record stands at 53.09). That’s so much faster,” she says.

It isn’t that Vithya was never fascinated with owning the record. Back in 2023, when she clocked a time of 55.43 at the Indian Grand Prix to finish just 0.01 seconds short of Usha’s record, she had told Sportstar just how happy she had been coming as close as she had. “When people see my name, it will be next to PT Usha ma’am,” she had said.

Vithya says her mindset changed in the months after Asian Games where she equalled Usha’s mark and finished with a bronze in the final. The daughter of a tempo driver in Coimbatore, Vithya was hoping for financial support that would allow her to pursue her athletics career at the level she wanted but ended up being disappointed. 

“I got some support from the state government for winning a bronze but I didn’t get any sponsorships or anything that I needed. I realised that whether I equalled Usha ma’am’s record or not didn’t matter. Whether I got an Asian Games medal or not didn’t matter. Nothing will change unless I do something extraordinary at competitions like the World Championships or Diamond League,” says Vithya.

This feeling, she says, was reinforced in the run-up to the 2024 Olympics. Nehpal Rathore, who has coached her for the last five years, says that period was one of the hardest of her career. “She earned that qualification spot because of her efforts. We didn’t have any support or sponsorships. If anything, that qualification period reminded me that no matter what obstacles the two of us are up against, we can still find a way to win,” she says.

Things are a little better now. Earlier this year, she started being sponsored by JSW Sports – something that’s made her athletics journey a little easier. “In the past, I faced a lot of financial problems. I couldn’t go to any international competition. My twin sister (Nithya Ramraj, who runs the 100m hurdles) missed the Olympics simply because she didn’t get the chance to compete in a foreign competition. Now I am able to travel for competitions. I don’t have to worry about flight tickets or hotels. I have shoes being provided for me,” she says.

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With some of her issues addressed, Vithya says she’s well placed to chase the goals she’s set for herself, not the national record, but beyond it. “I am not looking as far as Sydney’s gold medal time, but I think a time of 53 seconds is achievable. But I don’t use that time as a motivation. I have a lot of  kutti (small)  dreams that I will keep chasing one by one,” she says.

Setting small goals

These dreams aren’t related to timings but to sharpened technique. Among her primary goals for this season is to improve her running efficiency. “Until last year, I was running 16 strides between each hurdle for the first five hurdles. After that, as I got tired, I was running 18 and even 19 strides. I’m now trying to run 16 strides between hurdles for at least eight hurdles,” she says.

She’s not there yet. On Wednesday, she was able to maintain a 16-stride pattern for the first seven hurdles.

Perhaps one reason she couldn’t maintain that pace for longer was because of the 400m race she had run yesterday. She had clocked a season’s best time of 52.81 to finish second behind former junior world bronze medallist Rupal Choudhary. Vithya, though, doesn’t regret the decision. “I’m happy I got a season’s best in the 400m. The faster I get in the 400m, the more confidence I have in the 400m hurdles. And the more lactic buildup I get used to when I run a fast 400m, the easier it is for me to tolerate the same stress when I run the hurdles,” she says.

These are small wins she says will add up to create the kind of ‘extraordinary’ performance that she hopes to achieve. After her performances over the last couple of days, Vithya has qualified for the Asian Championships in both the 400m and the 400m hurdles but she’s aiming for a bigger target. “I am not thinking of a national record. I want to keep improving and making a season’s best every time I run. I really want to go and compete at the World Championships. The qualification standard for that is 54.65. It’s nearly one second faster than the national record but I think I can go even lower,” she says.