Vithya Ramraj is living out a dream

Identical twins Vithya & Nithya Ramraj from Coimbatore are making a mark in athletics. Vithya is a 400m hurdler & quartermiler, while Nithya is a sprint hurdler. Vithya is aiming for 54.50s in the Asian Games & is confident of breaking the 55-sec barrier. She's been training under Nehpal Singh Rathore for 3 yrs & is improving with every race.

They are identical twins and it’s very tough to differentiate Vithya Ramraj from Nithya. The former is a 400m hurdler and quartermiler while the latter is a sprint hurdler. Even the World Athletics is very confused when it comes to the twin sisters from Coimbatore who train at the Nehru Stadium in Chennai.

The World Athletics website has been listing Nithya’s achievements — she was fourth in the recent Bangkok Asians and is the country’s No. 2 100m hurdler behind Asian champion Jyothi Yarraji — under Vithya’s name.

Incidentally Vithya, who is younger to Nithya by a minute, has never done the 100m hurdles. She is now making a big mark in the tougher 400m hurdles and the 400 flat and her performances in the Indian Grand Prix-5 in Chandigarh promises to make 2023 her best year ever.

She narrowly missed P.T. Usha’s 39-year-old National record (55.42s) while taking the IGP title with a personal best 55.43. A day earlier, she shocked prominent names like Himanshi Malik and Aishwarya Mishra to the win the 400m in another personal best (52.40s).

The Asian Games in Hangzhou are just days away and Vithya has set some big goals for herself.

“I’m now aiming for 54.50 at the Asian Games... maybe, I’ll break the 55-sec barrier,” said the 24-year-old, in a chat with The Hindu, from Chandigarh.

“I couldn’t break Usha’s record because there was no competition, there was no one to fight. Right from the beginning, I felt I was running alone, it was like doing a practice session.”