Vithya narrowly misses P.T. Usha’s 39-year-old record

Vithya Ramraj narrowly missed P.T. Usha's 39-yr-old 400m hurdles record by 0.01s. Priti Lamba clocked a PB of 9:45.13s in 3000m steeplechase, securing a ticket to Asian Games. Winners of 4x100m relay missed Asiad cut by 0.24s & 0.16s respectively. Other events saw Ankesh Chaudhary, Aditya Kumar Singh, Sahib Singh & Tanya Chaudhary win. Bandana Patel & Monika won 10,000m race walk.

A day after her 400m stunner, Vithya Ramraj came close to toppling P.T. Usha’s 39-year-old 400m hurdles national record, missing it by one-hundredth of a second, at the Indian Grand Prix-5 in Chandigarh on Monday.

Vithya, who was in a world of her own in the 400m hurdles, clocked 55.43s as she gave a shiver to Usha’s precious record which came as she narrowly missed the bronze at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. Second-placed Sinchal Kaviramma was more than three seconds behind Vithya.

“I thought I’d get the record today, may be I’ll get it at the Asian Games,” said the 24-year-old Vithya who hails from Coimbatore.

Meanwhile, Priti Lamba clocked a personal best of 9:45.13s while claiming the women’s 3000m steeple chase, despite the event attracting just two athletes. This got her a ticket to the Asian Games which begins in Hangzhou, China, later this month.

The winners in the men’s and women’s 4x100m relay narrowly missed making the cut for the Asiad, clocking 39.24s (AFI qual. standard 39s) and 44.66s (44.50s) respectively.

The results:

Men: 800m (3 races, overall positions): 1. Ankesh Chaudhary (HP) 1:48.12s, 2. Sree Kiran (TN) 1:48.66, Prakash Gadade (Mah) 1:48.88.