Vithya Ramraj Shatters PT Usha's 400m Hurdles Record With Historic Asian Games Bronze

Vithya Ramraj turned the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games into a landmark night for Indian athletics on Monday, clocking 54.75 seconds to win bronze in the women's 400m hurdles. The 28-year-old from Coimbatore finished behind UAE's Mariam Kareem, who took gold in a Games record 54.31, and Kazakhstan's Adelina Zems, who claimed silver with a personal best of 54.58. The medal was a bonus. What Ramraj really ran down was time itself.

Her personal best erases PT Usha's mark of 55.42, set at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics and the oldest record in Indian athletics. It had stood for 42 years. Ramraj had drawn level with it at the Hangzhou Asian Games in 2023 but could not get past it. In Nagoya she did, cutting 0.67 seconds off a number that generations of hurdlers had failed to touch.

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There was a fitting backdrop. Usha, now heading the Indian Olympic Association, was in the stadium to watch her record fall. It was Ramraj's second medal of these Games, after a silver in the 4x400m mixed relay. Compatriot Anu Raghavan finished fifth in the same final with a personal best of 55.88, while discus thrower Seema Kaliramna narrowly missed the podium in fourth despite a personal best of her own.

Ramraj's rise has been steady. At the Hangzhou Asian Games in 2023 she won bronze in the 400m hurdles and helped India to silver in both the 4x400m relay and the 4x400m mixed relay. She added another 400m hurdles bronze at the 2025 Asian Athletics Championships in Gumi, South Korea.

She also ran for India in the 4x400m relay at the 2024 Paris Olympics, and her flat 400m best stands at 52.25. Her Nagoya double of relay silver and hurdles bronze, with a national record, is now the biggest medal haul of her career.