NAGOYA, September 28, 2026: India’s Vithya Ramraj produced a landmark performance at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games on Monday, breaking P.T. Usha’s 42-year-old national record in the women’s 400m hurdles while winning the bronze medal.
Ramraj clocked a personal best of 54.75 seconds in the final, lowering Usha’s long-standing national mark of 55.42 seconds, set at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, by 0.67 seconds.
The 28-year-old from Coimbatore had been chasing the record for several years. She had equalled Usha’s 55.42-second mark at the 2023 Asian Games in Hangzhou, where she also won bronze. In Nagoya, she finally moved beyond it, becoming the first Indian woman to break the 55-second barrier in the event.
The race was won by the UAE’s Mariam Kareem, who clocked a Games-record 54.31 seconds, while Kazakhstan’s Adelina Zems took silver with a personal best of 54.58 seconds. India’s other finalist, Anu Raghavan, finished fifth in another personal best of 55.88 seconds.
For Ramraj, the bronze is her second medal at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games. She had earlier been part of India’s silver-winning mixed 4x400m relay team.
The performance also gives Ramraj successive Asian Games bronze medals in the 400m hurdles, following her podium finish in Hangzhou.
For more than four decades, Usha’s 55.42-second mark had remained one of the longest-standing national records in Indian athletics. On Monday, Ramraj finally rewrote that chapter with a record-breaking run of her own.
New national record: Vithya Ramraj — 54.75 seconds.
