Ramraj heard PT Usha's name whenever running came up. Now his daughter has her record

For years, Ramraj heard PT Usha's name without having anything to do with athletics.

He heard it from women waiting for buses.

"I have seen women shouting, 'Why are you stopping the bus so far away? I am not PT Usha to run and get in,'" Ramraj told News18 Tamil.

In Tamil Nadu, Usha's name had become shorthand for speed. To tell someone to run was, sometimes, to tell them they were no PT Usha.

On Wednesday evening in Aichi-Nagoya, Ramraj's daughter gave him a different reason to hear that name.

Vithya Ramraj had just run past PT Usha.

On a rain-soaked track, the 26-year-old clocked 54.75 seconds in the women's 400m hurdles, breaking Usha's 42-year-old national record of 55.42. She became the first Indian woman to go under 55 seconds in the event.

The timing took a little longer to appear.

There was a glitch. Vithya waited, watching the screen.

Then came the words: NR.

"I was very happy. I had rehearsed the dance move a couple of days earlier. After seeing that record flash on the screen, it clicked in my mind that I had to dance on the track," she told OneIndia Tamil.

The bronze medal she won that evening was only one part of a three-medal Asian Games campaign. Vithya also helped India win gold in the women's 4x400m relay, running a sensational anchor leg, and silver in the mixed 4x400m relay.

But it was the bronze that carried the weight of history.

Three years earlier, at the Asian Games in Hangzhou, Vithya had run 55.42 seconds in the heats, exactly equalling the record Usha had set at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. She eventually won bronze in the final, clocking 55.68.

For the next three years, however, the record remained beyond her.

She struggled to break 56 seconds, running 56.23 in 2024 and 56.04 in 2025. An ankle injury at the 2025 Asian Athletics Championships forced her into rehabilitation and delayed her return to her best.

'MY COACH IS NEVER SATISFIED'

The work with coach Nehpal Singh intensified. Vithya had been training with him since 2021, and over the past 12 months, with the Asian Games firmly in mind, the two put in long hours, with Vithya rarely returning home.

Even after the record, Nehpal was not satisfied.

"Whenever I run, the person who is not satisfied at all is my coach. In athletics, coaches never get satisfied. If a coach is happy, the student might get settled. He always keeps pushing me," Vithya said.

She smiled when she spoke about the medal.

"He has not taken a single photo with that medal. I don't think he thinks this is enough. I will take this as inspiration for my next season. We are like family."

The next target is already clear: sub-54 seconds.

Vithya believes it is possible. So does Nehpal.

Perhaps that is fitting for an athlete who spent years chasing a number she had once matched. In Aichi-Nagoya, she finally ran beyond it.

The journey to that track was hardly straightforward.

Ramraj was a truck driver. When Vithya and her twin sister Nithya were starting out, he borrowed money to buy them shoes, spikes and other equipment. There were years when athletics was not a secure route to a livelihood, and the family had to make sacrifices to keep the twins running. It was not easy to silence those who were skeptical of Ramraj encouraging his daughters to take up the less-fancied sport of track and field.

Today, Vithya has a job with the Railways. She has received support from the Sports Ministry and TOPS, while the Tamil Nadu government has also backed her.

"Now, I will be able to buy anything I want. I have a job in Railways. The Sports Ministry and TOPS supported me. My state government supports me," she said.

"But, there was a time when my father sacrificed a lot."

Ramraj had hoped his daughter would win gold in the hurdles in Japan.

She didn't.

But perhaps the colour of the medal mattered less after what happened on that rain-soaked evening.

"I was hoping she would win Gold, but now she has broken PT Usha's record, which is like winning Gold for me," he said.

For years, Ramraj had heard Usha's name as a measure of how fast a woman could run.

Now, when people talk about that record, they will have another name to say.