Vithya brushes away discomfort to win an easy gold

Vithya Ramraj (TN) won 400m gold in 52.85s despite being unwell; Jyothi Yarraji (AP) & Tejas Shirse (Mah) won 100m hurdles & 110m hurdles golds, respectively; Muhammed Anees (Ker) equalled PB of 8.15m to win long jump gold; Abha Khatua (Mah) won shot put gold with 17.09m.

For a few minutes before the women’s 400m final, Vithya Ramraj was wondering whether she should skip the big race. The long season had drained her, she was unwell too. But despite the discomfort the 25-year-old, who trains in Chennai, won the gold comfortably in the 37th National Games at the Bambolim Athletics Stadium and with a time that surprised her.

“I had fever, dysentery, and vomiting because the food was changing every day. I thought I shouldn’t run but my coach said I should. In fact, I was the last to come to the call room,” Vithya, the Asian Games 4x400m relay silver medallist, told The Hindu after her victory which came in 52.85s.

“I didn’t think I would run this sort of time, I thought it would be something like 54s.”

Vithya left the rest behind midway through the home stretch and won by a good margin with D. Jyothikasri (53.48) and Jisna Mathew (54.40) taking silver and bronze.

There were no surprises as Asian champion Jyothi Yarraji, one of the big stars here, and Tejas Shirse — both coached by James Hillier at the Reliance Foundation — won the women’s and men’s sprint hurdles without raising a sweat and in the process breaking the Games record too.

It was one of those rare days when Jyothi did not go under 13 seconds but it pulled silver medallist Nithya Ramraj to a personal best time (13.36s).

“This season is over and I just wanted to see what I could do with a free, relaxed mind. Of course, I’m not satisfied with my time, I want to get better and better. I want to be hungrier and try to get faster times since we have the Olympics next year,” said Jyothi.