Vithya sets new 400m hurdles meet record

Olympian Vithya Ramraj breaks national records in 400m hurdles, aiming for Worlds with impressive performances this season.

Olympian Vithya Ramraj appears to be in National record-breaking form this season. The 26-year-old from Tamil Nadu broke the six-year-old women’s 400m hurdles meet record at the 28th National Federation athletics championships here on Wednesday and predicted bigger things this year.

“I could have gone faster but I was tired after yesterday’s 400m. Had we had the hurdles tomorrow, I’d have surely done 54s,” said Vithya who clocked 56.04s and finished more than two seconds ahead of Anu Raghavan.

Vithya equalled the great P.T. Usha’s National record of 55.42s at the last Asian Games where she won the bronze. She felt the signs were good that the 41-year-old record would fall this year.

“I’m aiming for the Worlds and my goal is 54s. I had clocked 56s early this season, a sort of time I could only manage late last season. I’ll surely end this year with 54,” said Vithya who also achieved the AFI’s qualification standard for the Asians.

Meanwhile Karnataka’s P. Yashas clocked a personal best 49.32s while winning the men’s 400m hurdles (49.32s) but was disappointed that he could not get the 49.19s for an Asian ticket.

In another corner of the Maharaja’s Stadium, Punjab’s National Games champion Niharika Vashisht was celebrating a triple jump personal best (13.49m), a last-round effort that saw her beat Kerala’s Sandra Babu by 1cm for the gold.

The 29-year-old had completed a two-year doping suspension in February 2022 and now appears stronger than ever, improving her PB by more than 40cm in a year’s time.