On Monday, moments after she had broken the longest standing record in Indian track and field (PT Usha's 400m hurdles set 42 years ago), Vithya Ramraj said that she was not done just yet. "I want three medals, tomorrow one is waiting for me." The one waiting for her was the one that had always waited for India's track and field athletes, no matter how everything else was going -- the women's 4x400m relay.
Starting with a silver in 1982, India's record in the women's 4x4 read: gold, silver, silver, silver, gold, gold, gold, gold, silver. Walking into the Aichi-Nagoya edition's 4x4, there was an additional bit of pressure weighing down on the team -- no track and field athlete had won gold yet, and India were this close to ending a Games without a T&F gold since Hiroshima 1994. After the high of Hangzhou 2022 (2023, really), one where the gold-medal-streak-breaking silver in this event had been forgotten in the glow of all the golds and medals won; they were back in the limelight, though.
Once again, the women's 4x4 held India's athletics gold hopes in a plastic baton that would go around 1600m of the track.
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Going into it, though, it was clear that it wouldn't be easy. For one, the competition across the board had stepped up their game, for another Bahrain would be anchored by the greatest Asian one-lapper of all time, Salwa Eid Naser.
In stormy conditions at Nagoya's Paloma Mizuho stadium, Kiran Pahal started the race off for India at a decent lick. Kiran -- who had fought an indifferent family and the financial struggles that come without having a long-time sponsor to keep her place in India's most competitive athletics program through the last few years -- ran hard, but could only hand the baton over in fourth place to Machettira Raju Poovamma for the second leg.
Poovamma, 36 now and still a key member of the team, had first won this relay gold in 2014. Here she was, 12 years later, still nailing down that crucial second leg where she would need all her experience to pick up the pace (after all, India couldn't afford going into the Salwa-anchor leg in fourth place). She had missed the team bus in Hangzhou, but she was back and about to remind everyone why she had five Asian Games medals (3 x gold) in her trophy cabinet. So, pick up the pace she did, eating up the final bend and handing it over to Prachi Choudhary in second place.
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Kiran, MR Poovamma, Prachi and Vithya Ramraj clinch India's only track & field gold at the 2026 Asian Games in the women's 4x400m relay ��
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Prachi, a surprise medalist in the individual 400m earlier this week, took it up and maintained Poovamma's pace, and place. For a period in her career at the early part of this decade, a doping cloud threatened to derail her but with absolution of that allegation came a newfound drive. The individual 400m bronze had come on the back of a tactically astute run, not overextending herself in futile pursuit of Naser, rather maintaining her pace and focusing on finishing on the podium. In this third leg of the 4x4, she did just that all over again: focus on her execution and maintain consistency. As she did that, Bahrain's Zainab Fyofuoba faded with every step, behind her. When Prachi handed the baton over to Vithya, India were still second. Bahrain and Salwa Naser were seventh.
Vithya had already won two medals at these Games -- that record-breaking 400m hurdles bronze and a 4x400m mixed silver (along with Poovamma, Manu T and Vishal TK) -- but she wanted three. Long legs settling into that relaxed stride of hers, she started eating up the gap between her and China's Zuo Siyu. By the time the first bend was done, she was breathing down Siyu's neck, and by the time the last bend came, she was leading the Chinese. It was a superb bit of running, but she wasn't done. As she entered the final straight, she continued to build the gap... for she knew what was coming.
Behind Vithya, Naser got the baton in seventh place, and then set off in one of the all-time great anchor legs. Before the bend started, she was sixth and by the time it ended, she was fifth. On the straight, she closed the gap to #3 and #4 and by the time she entered the final bend she was third, the hunter picking off her prey one by one. Naser tore through the bend and overhauled Siyu right as the straight started.
In the last 50m, it was Salwa Eid Naser vs Vithya Ramraj. Usually, there's only ever one winner in that battle, but not on this day. When she had first started running the quarter-mile, Vithya usually flagged in the last 100m -- but she had built the stamina to maintain her speed brick by brick and over this Asiad and the last she had proved she could do it well enough to medal. But to get gold? Against the phenom hunting her down with cold violence behind her? Could she do it?
As the race entered the last stretch, though, the answer was clear: there was no catching Vithya. She had been handed a cushion by her teammates, but it was her pace and calmness that made sure Naser never drew close enough to threaten an overtake.
At the finish line, the three others leaped onto her in a display of unfettered joy, even as you could sense the federation officials finally get their breath back: gold was here, finally.
After the race, senior statesperson Poovamma made it clear just what this was about: "What we missed in the last Asian Games, this time we had to win gold. Because our women's team usually win gold at the Asian Games," she told Olympics.com after the race.
"And now, we'll hear the national anthem." The Mizuho stadium wouldn't wind up the athletics portion of the Aichi-Nagoya Asiad without Jana Gana Mana ringing around it at least once. And it was all thanks to Kiran Pahal, MR Poovamma, Prachi Chaudhary, and Vithya Ramraj.