Ramraj heard PT Usha’s name whenever a run came up. Now his daughter holds the record

For years, Ramraj had heard the name PT Usha without having anything to do with athletics.

He heard it from women waiting for buses.

“I saw women shouting, ‘Why are you stopping the bus so far? I am not PT Usha to run and board,” Ramraj told News18 Tamil.

In Tamil Nadu, the name Usha has become short for speed. Telling someone to run sometimes meant telling them they weren’t PT Usha.

On Wednesday night in Aichi-Nagoya, Ramraj’s daughter gave him another reason to hear the name.

Vithya Ramraj just ran past PT Usha. Courtesy: Reuters

On a rain-soaked track, the 26-year-old clocked 54.75 seconds in the 400m hurdles, beating Usha’s 42-year-old national record of 55.42. She became the first Indian woman to go under 55 seconds in this event.

The timing took a little longer to appear.

An error occurred. Vithya waited and watched the screen.

Then came the words: NR.

“I was very happy. I had practiced the dance move a few days ago. After seeing that footage of the footage on the screen, it clicked in my mind that I have to dance on the track,” she told OneIndia Tamil.

The bronze medal she won that evening was just one part of a three-medal campaign at the Asian Games. Vithya also helped India win gold in the women’s 4x400m relay when she ran a sensational anchor leg and silver in the 4x400m medley relay.

But it was the bronze that carried the weight of history. Courtesy: Reuters

Three years earlier, at the Asian Games in Hangzhou, Vithya clocked 55.42 seconds in the heats, exactly equaling the record set by Usha at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. She eventually took bronze in the final, clocking 55.68.

However, for the next three years, the record eluded her.

Trying to break 56 seconds, she ran 56.23 in 2024 and 56.04 in 2025. An ankle injury at the 2025 Asian Athletics Championships forced her to rehabilitate and delayed her return to peak performance.

‘MY COACH IS NEVER SATISFIED’

Work with coach Nehpal Singh intensified. Vithya had been training with him since 2021 and over the past 12 months, with the Asian Games firmly on his mind, the two had spent long hours and Vithya rarely returned home.

Even after the record, Nehpal was not satisfied.

“Whenever I run, the person who is not happy at all is my coach. In athletics, coaches are never happy. If the coach is happy, the student might settle down. They keep pushing me,” Vithya said.

She was smiling as she talked about the medal.

“He didn’t take a single photo with that medal. I don’t think it’s enough. I’ll take it as inspiration for my next season. We’re like a family.”

The next goal is already clear: less than 54 seconds.

Vithya believes it is possible. So did Nehpal.

Maybe it’s fitting for an athlete who spent years chasing the number she once had. In Aichi-Nagoya, she finally got over it.

The road to that track was hardly straightforward.

Ramraj was a truck driver. When Vithya and her twin sister Nithya were starting out, he borrowed money to buy them shoes, spikes and other equipment. There were years when athletics was not a safe way to make a living and the family had to make sacrifices to keep the twins going. It was not easy to silence those who were skeptical that Ramrád was encouraging his daughters to take up the less popular sport of athletics. Courtesy: AP

Today, Vithya has a job with the railways. She received support from the Sports Department and TOPS, while the Tamil Nadu government also supported her.

“Now I will be able to buy whatever I want. I have a job in the railways. I have been supported by the sports ministry and TOPS. My state government is supporting me,” she said.

“But there was a time when my father sacrificed a lot.

Ramraj was hopeful that his daughter would win the hurdles gold in Japan.

She doesn’t.

But maybe the color of the medal mattered less after what happened that rainy evening.

“I was hoping she would win gold but now she has broken PT Usha’s record, which is like winning gold for me,” he said.

For years, Ramraj had heard Usha’s name as a measure of how fast a woman could run.

Now when people talk about that record, it will have a different name.

Vithya Ramraj.

– The end