Vithya almost breaks PT Usha’s record

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh: Sitting near the finish line, R Vithya Ramraj stared in disbelief at the timings of the women’s 400m hurdles race on the big screen. A day after recording her personal best in the 400m, Tamil Nadu’s Vithya ran her fastest 400m hurdles ever. What she could not believe was how close she came to breaking the national record of the legendary PT Usha. The 24-year-old clocked 55.43 seconds, just one hundredth of a second more than Usha’s 55.42 which she had clocked while finishing fourth in the 1984 Olympics. “I had been thinking about the record since last night. I wanted to be the new PT Usha,” said Vithya, who will participate in the 400m hurdles at the Asian Games. “I cannot believe I missed by such a small margin; I was a bit slow in my first 200m. But I am not disappointed because I will break the record at the Asian Games,” she added.

Amlan in but 100m relay teams miss out

Chandigarh: Top sprinter Amlan Borgohain and quartermiler Prachi were today added to the Asian Games squad. Assam’s Borgohain will compete in the men’s 200m, while Uttar Pradesh’s Prachi will be a part of the women’s 4x400m relay team. In the men’s 20km race walk, Vikash Singh replaced national record holder Akshdeep Singh, who is injured. The men’s and women’s 4x100m relay teams, though, missed out as they failed to breach the qualifying marks today. While the men finished 00.24 above the 39s mark, the women finished 00.16 outside 44.50.

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