Hurdler Vithya Ramraj clocked 54.75s in the final of women’s 400m hurdles at the Asian Games 2026 to claim the bronze medal and break 42 year old national record of PT Usha.

Usha’s 55.42s was one of the longest standing national records in India and Vithya has been behind the record for some time.

Vithya’s reaction on the broadcast said it all. After realising that she has broken one of the longest standing records in Indian athletics history, the 28-year-old from Coimbatore broke into a dance routine to celebrate.

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She had come very close to the record in the last edition of the Asian Games when she had clocked 55.42s in the heats and missed the record by 0.01s.

This is second consecutive bronze medal for Vithya in the event at the Asian Games as she had finished third in the last edition also.

This is also India’s third consecutive medal in the event at the Asian Games after Anu Raghavan had won the bronze in 2018 Jakarta edition.

It was one of the fastest races in Asian Games history with Mariam Kareem of UAE clocking a Games record 54.31s. Adelina Zems of Kazakhstan, who won the silver medal, also clocked her personal best of 54.58s.

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Another Indian in the event, Anu Raghvan finished fifth with a timing of 55.88s clocking her personal best. A total of four out of eight finalists clocked their personal best in the race

This is second medal for Vithya at this edition of Asian Games as she won silver with the mixed 4*400m relay team earlier. She will be in action with the women’s 4*400m later in the competition.

In men’s 400m hurdles, Santhosh T had a poor outing as he finished seventh in the final with a timing of 49.95s.

This is India’s 14th medal in Athletics with six silver and eight bronze medals. India hasn’t won any gold medal yet.