Coimbatore, September 30: Vithya Ramraj, the 28-year-old athlete from Coimbatore, closed the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games with three medals in three colours. She won gold in the women’s 4x400m relay, silver in the mixed 4x400m relay, and bronze in the women’s 400m hurdles — and in that hurdles final she broke P.T. Usha’s 42-year-old national record.
Three races, three medals
Her first medal was silver in the mixed 4x400m relay. India finished second with T. S. Manu, Machettira Poovamma, Vishal Thennarasu and Vithya Ramraj. Vithya ran the anchor leg.
On September 28 at Nagoya’s Mizuho Stadium she ran the women’s 400m hurdles in 54.75 seconds. UAE teenager Mariam Kareem won gold in a Games record of 54.31 seconds. Kazakhstan’s Adelina Zems took silver in 54.58. Vithya finished third. The bronze also moved the Indian national record past P.T. Usha’s 55.42 seconds, set at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.
A NEW CHAPTER IN INDIAN ATHLETICS! 🇮🇳🥉
— Dr Mansukh Mandaviya (@mansukhmandviya) September 28, 2026
Vithya Ramraj wins Bronze in the Women’s 400m Hurdles at #AsianGames2026, shattering legendary PT Usha's National Record in the process! A historic run that makes the nation proud.#Cheer4Bharat pic.twitter.com/IXCntDOoTH
Vithya had already touched that mark. In September 2023 she ran 55.43 seconds at the Indian Grand Prix, and later that year at the Hangzhou Asian Games she equalled Usha’s 55.42. In Nagoya she took 0.67 seconds off it and became the first Indian woman under 55 seconds in the event. She said afterwards that she had gone for the time, not the medal: “This race will not come again. Today was my day, so I went for timing. Not for a medal.”
The golden finish
On September 29, India lined up for the women’s 4x400m relay final with Kiran Pahal, Machettira Poovamma, Prachi Choudhary and Vithya Ramraj. Kiran opened and handed over in third. Poovamma moved India into the lead. Prachi kept them in front. Vithya took the baton for the anchor leg, held off Bahrain’s Salwa Eid Naser, and India stopped the clock at 3:29.69. Bahrain finished in 3:30.21 and China in 3:31.02.
Barefoot. Soaked. GOLDEN. 🥇🇮🇳
— Athletics Federation of India (@afiindia) September 29, 2026
Pure joy on the Nagoya track moments after India's women's 4x400m relay team became ASIAN GAMES CHAMPIONS 🙌🔥
🏃♀️ Kiran
🏃♀️ Machettira Poovamma
🏃♀️ Prachi
🏃♀️ Vithya Ramraj
⏱️ 3:29.69
Spikes off, smiles on, and a celebration India will remember 💙
🎥… pic.twitter.com/FY44yjYBtO
It was India’s only athletics gold of the Aichi-Nagoya Games, and the first women’s 4x400m Asian Games title for India since Jakarta 2018. India had won the event at five straight Games from Busan 2002 to Jakarta 2018, then finished second to Bahrain in Hangzhou. After the race, Vithya said: “My head is out of range now.”
| Event | Result | Performance |
|---|---|---|
| Mixed 4x400m relay | Silver | Anchor leg for India |
| Women’s 400m hurdles | Bronze | 54.75 sec — national record |
| Women’s 4x400m relay | Gold | India 3:29.69; Vithya ran anchor |
#InPics | India's Vithya Ramraj poses with her gold, silver and bronze medals after her impressive medal haul at the Asian Games 2026 in Nagoya, Japan. She won gold in the women's 4x400m relay, silver in the 4x400m mixed relay and bronze in the women's 400m hurdles.… pic.twitter.com/r6YTaRioGv
— IndiaToday (@IndiaToday) September 30, 2026
A Coimbatore story
Vithya and her identical twin, Nithya Ramraj, grew up in Coimbatore. Their father, Ramraj, worked as a tempo and truck driver. Their mother, Meena, was a homemaker. When private-school fees became hard to meet, the sisters moved to government schooling. Their mother later enrolled them in a sports hostel in Erode.
Vithya specialised in the 400m and the 400m hurdles. Nithya developed as a sprint hurdler. At the 2023 Hangzhou Asian Games they became the first twins to represent India in athletics. Vithya’s rise had already shown at the 2021 Open Nationals, where she won gold in the 400m, the 400m hurdles and the 4x400m relay.
When she left the national camp to train under coach Nehpal Singh Rathore, she also lost camp accommodation, food and training support. Nithya, a national-level hurdler working in the Income Tax Department, used her salary to cover shoes, supplements, travel, stay and coaching. Vithya later joined Indian Railways. Their coach’s work on endurance and the last 50 metres — including longer repetitions such as 600m runs — is the finish she showed in Nagoya.
World Athletics lists her 400m hurdles best at 54.75 seconds, set in Nagoya on September 28, and a flat 400m best of 51.96 seconds from August 2026. The stated next target is to take the hurdles mark below 54 seconds.
P.T. Usha, and Tamil Nadu’s response
P.T. Usha congratulated Vithya after the record fell, saying records are meant to be broken and calling the moment progress for Indian athletics. Vithya had spoken in 2023, when she was one-hundredth of a second from the mark, about wanting Usha’s blessings.
The Tamil Nadu government announced performance incentives as the medals came in: ₹30 lakh after the hurdles bronze and national record; ₹50 lakh after the mixed-relay silver, announced for Vithya and fellow Tamil Nadu runner Vishal T.K.; and ₹75 lakh after the women’s 4x400m gold, announced by the Chief Minister. Counted together, those announcements come to ₹1.55 crore. The mixed-relay figure was announced for two athletes, not for Vithya alone.
Why it matters in Coimbatore
The athletics programme ran from September 24 to September 29 at the renovated Nagoya City Mizuho Park Athletic Stadium. The 20th Asian Games opened on September 19 and run until October 4, with athletes from 45 countries and regions.
For Coimbatore, the week is a local story as much as a national one. Vithya came through school sport, an Erode sports hostel, a family that stretched to buy spikes, and a stretch of training paid for by her twin. The clock in Nagoya now reads 54.75 seconds. The name next to the women’s 400m hurdles national record is Vithya Ramraj, from Coimbatore.
