Vithya Ramraj wins Asian Games bronze, breaks PT Usha’s 42-year-old record

Vithya Ramraj crossed the finish line in third place at the Asian Games on September 28, 2026. The bronze medal was hers, but the clock carried another result: 54.75 seconds. In the women’s 400-meter hurdles final in Nagoya, Japan, she had become the first Indian woman to break 55 seconds in the event and had taken sole possession of a national record set 42 years earlier by PT Usha.

Ramraj’s time cut 0.67 seconds from the previous record of 55.42, which she had shared with Usha since the 2023 Asian Games. It was also a personal best, achieved in the final rather than in a qualifying round. For an athlete who had already reached an Asian Games podium, the run marked a new step: she had not only won another medal but moved past the benchmark she had spent three years trying to beat.

How the final unfolded

The race was quick enough to produce a Games record as well as an Indian one. Mariam Kareem of the United Arab Emirates won gold in 54.31 seconds. Kazakhstan’s Adelina Zems took silver in a personal-best 54.58, with Ramraj crossing 0.17 seconds behind her. India had a second finalist, Anu Raghavan, who finished fifth in a personal-best 55.88.

Those times put Ramraj’s bronze in perspective. Her 54.75 would have been a landmark for Indian athletics regardless of her finishing position, yet it came in a race where two competitors were faster. It was her second consecutive Asian Games bronze in the 400-meter hurdles. She had also helped India win silver in the mixed 4×400-meter relay earlier at the 2026 Games, making the hurdles result her second medal in Nagoya.

The record she surpassed

Usha set the previous Indian mark of 55.42 seconds at the Los Angeles Olympics on August 8, 1984. She finished fourth in that final, missing the bronze medal by one-hundredth of a second. The time endured as the standard for Indian women in the 400-meter hurdles for decades, linking a close Olympic finish to every subsequent attempt to improve the national record.

Ramraj first reached that standard at the 2023 Asian Games in Hangzhou, China. She ran 55.42 in her heat, equaling Usha’s mark and advancing to the final. She then won bronze in 55.68 seconds. The distinction matters: her record-equalling performance came in the heat, not in the race that gave her the medal. In Nagoya three years later, the record-breaking run and the bronze arrived together.

Going from 55.42 to 54.75 means more than removing a fraction from a long-standing figure. In a one-lap event with ten hurdles, an athlete must sustain speed while judging each approach and landing. Ramraj’s improvement of 0.67 seconds is substantial against a result measured to hundredths, and crossing the 55-second threshold gives future Indian hurdlers a new target.

A milestone beyond the medal

Ramraj, from Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu, has now stood on the Asian Games podium in the same individual event at two successive editions. The two bronzes tell one part of her story. The difference between the races tells another: in Hangzhou, she showed she could match a historic Indian time; in Nagoya, she proved she could lower it.

Usha congratulated Ramraj after the race, describing the breaking of a record as a source of pride when a new generation pushes beyond an earlier mark. The 1984 performance remains an important chapter in Indian athletics. Ramraj’s 2026 run adds the next one, with 54.75 seconds now the time for others to chase.