Anu Raghavan and her pursuit of an Asian Games podium despite a medal never came her way

Anu Raghavan will represent India in the 400m hurdles at the 2026 Asian Games. (Instagram) New Delhi: For eight years, 400m hurdler Anu Raghavan has been an Asian Games medalist without ever standing on the podium. She has the certificate. However, there is no bronze medal.When Bahrain’s Kemi Adekoya was stripped of her 2018 Asian Games gold after a doping violation, Raghavan moved from fourth place to bronze. On paper, history has changed. Actually nothing. There was no medal ceremony, no flag raised in Jakarta and no applause from a packed stadium. Just a modified score sheet and an absence that has persisted ever since.“I won a bronze medal in the Asian Games despite finishing fourth,” Raghavan told TimesofIndia.com. “But even now I’m sad because I still don’t have the medal in my hand. I have the certificate, but the feeling of being a medalist from the Asian Games is not there at all,” she continued.On September 28 in Aichi-Nagoya, the 33-year-old will finally have the opportunity to claim that moment.Indian athletics have produced their share of comebacks, but few have come with so many twists and turns.Raghavan’s journey began long before international medals arrived. The U-14 national champion completed the Asian and World Junior circuit before establishing herself as one of India’s leading one-lap hurdlers. Her breakthrough came in 2017 when she won the silver medal at the Asian Championships in Bhubaneswar, clocking a then personal best of 57.22 seconds.However, the decisive chapter of her career came a year earlier under rather controversial circumstances.In 2016, Raghavan was left out of India’s Olympic relay despite being among the top quarter milers in the country. She challenged the decision in court and the controversy became one of the biggest selection debates in Indian athletics.Rather than ending a career, Rio was a turning point.“As everyone knows, I got kicked out of the team at the first Olympics in 2016,” she says. “After that, I thought that if I continued, maybe my life would be fulfilled in sports. I realized that I was not an international medalist yet, so I had to work on it,” she explained.Two years later came Jakarta. She finished fourth in 56.92 seconds — the race of her life at the time. Months later, the bronze arrived with a review, not a celebration.Paying to keep the dream alive

Anu Raghavan dislocated his elbow before the Federation Cup earlier this year. (Instagram)

What followed was perhaps even heavier than the luggage at the Rio Olympics.Elite athletics is expensive, especially for athletes outside the financial ecosystem of cricket. Following changes to Kerala’s post-pandemic athlete support scheme, Raghavan found herself funding her own career while continuing to compete at the national level.“For the last five years, I’ve been training outside. I’ve been spending my own money,” she says. “To compete in the Indian Series, travel, accommodation, everything is needed. Our monthly salary is just not enough,” she explained of her hardships.The Palakkad born remained a national medalist almost every year but sponsorship proved elusive.“I worked hard for five years to get sponsorship. After 25 years it is very difficult to get it. Reliance Foundation gave me a chance. I was 32 years old and they believed in me,” she said.The timing was significant.Her mother’s prolonged illness and subsequent death made her question whether continuing was worth the emotional and financial burden.“I was under a lot of pressure because of my mother’s condition and later her death. But they gave me confidence that I can survive in any situation,” the athlete added.The event that chose herAsk most hurdlers why they chose their event and you’ll hear stories about speed or rhythm. Raghavan’s answer is different.“The event chose me,” he laughs.As a schoolgirl, she played Kho Kho before joining the Kerala Sports Division. The trainers tested her in the sprint, middle distance, jumps and hurdles. Her stamina immediately stood out.“My coach wanted me to run the 400m. I kept telling him I wanted the hurdles. He promised that once I reached Plus One (11th grade) he would make me the 400m hurdles. That’s exactly what happened.”She never looked back.From the Asian juniors to the world universities, every major international appearance has come in the 400m hurdles, an event widely regarded as one of the most demanding athletics disciplines.It is neither a sprint nor a distance race. Ten obstacles break the rhythm every 35-45 meters, forcing the athlete to combine speed, endurance and technical precision, while fatigue constantly breaks down the mechanics.Focus not only on training

Anu Raghavan is part of the 78-strong Indian athletics contingent for the 2026 Asian Games. (Instagram)

If there’s one theme running through Raghavan’s 2026 season, it’s sports science.Modern athletics is obsessed with data: power plates, stride analysis, biomechanical sensors, and race modeling. For Raghavan, the numbers did something that years of training couldn’t.They restored faith.“We used to just train,” he says. “Now we use data, analytics, electronic devices. We can actually read our strength. When I compare my numbers, I know I’m not weak. That gave me confidence,” she said.Confidence mattered because her body had already tested her once this year.During the Federation Cup, she crashed and dislocated her elbow. The injury briefly threatened her Asian Games campaign, but she recovered in time to produce the fastest performance of her career – 56.54m at the Indian Championships – this season to cement her place in the Indian squad.

I talked to a mindset coach because I felt I couldn’t handle the pressure anymore. I even considered quitting the sport. She asked me, “Why did you start?” I thought about it for an hour. After that, everything changed

Anu Raghavan

He insists the difference was not physical. It was mental.“I spoke to a mindset coach because I felt I couldn’t handle the pressure anymore. At this age, I even thought about quitting the sport,” she says. “She asked me one question: Why did you start?” I thought about it for an hour. Then everything changed,” she said with a smile.Last wave to the podium

Anu Raghavan has qualified for the Asian Games at the Odisha Inter-State Senior Athletics Championships. (Instagram)

With the Asian Games on the horizon, training has become surprisingly uncomplicated. Hard weight training is now less. Less emphasis on raw speed. More repetition of one thing: execution.“We are now concentrating on the racing scheme,” explains Raghavan. “Before it was fitness and speed. Now it’s about how to execute the race in competition,” she explained of the process as the Asian Games begin on September 19.Completing the 400m steeplechase means knowing exactly how many strides separate each hurdle, where to attack, where to save and how to resist panicking when the lactic acid starts flooding your legs after the sixth hurdle.Even her mental preparation follows the same script.“I imagine the race,” he says. “I think about my legs, my speed and how I want to handle each obstacle.Eight women from Asia are faster and younger than Raghavan, and six of them will compete in Aichi-Nagoya. The women’s 400m hurdles in Asia is deeper than in 2018.But medals aren’t always the only measure of redemption.For an athlete who fought Olympic exclusion, financed her own career, rebuilt after a personal loss and waited years for recognition of a medal she had already earned, Aichi-Nagoya offers something more meaningful than another entry on her resume.It offers the opportunity to finally hear her name announced as an Asian Games medalist: in real time, on the track, waiting for the podium.