Asian Games: Vithya Ramraj powers women’s relay team to gold

New Delhi: Relief and joy lit up the faces of India’s women quarter-milers as the relay team ended the country’s gold medal drought on the final day of athletics competition at the Nagoya City Mizuho Park Athletic Stadium on Tuesday.

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Vithya, who has had an outstanding Games and broke PT Usha’s 400m hurdles national record on Monday, powered through the bend after overtaking China’s anchor runner Siyu Zuo and was unstoppable on the home stretch. Bahrain’s Paris Olympics silver medallist Salwa Eid Naser chased down Zuo, but was unable to catch Vithya.

Kiran Pahal gave India a good start, and seasoned campaigner M Poovamma, 36, kept India in contention before handing over the baton to Prachi Chaudhary, who seemed to lose a few yards as China and Bahrain stayed in the hunt. Vithya, running the final leg, took the field by surprise with a strong finish. It was Vithya’s third medal in the Aichi-Nagoya Games.

The men’s 4x400m and mixed 4x100m relay teams finished with bronze medals. In mixed relay, Gurindervir Singh, SS Sneha, Animesh Kujur and Harita Bhadra finished third in 41.06secs, behind China (40.78secs) and Thailand (40.87secs). In the last race of the day, India’s men’s relay quarter-milers -- defending champions-- clocked 3:01.61, behind gold medallists Japan (3:00.75) and Qatar (3:00.93). The Indian team comprised Dharamveer Choudhary, T Manu, Jay Kumar and Vishal TK.

Earlier, distance runner Gulveer Singh finished on a high, completing a hat-trick of individual medals with a bronze medal in 5000m to go with silver medals in 10000m and 1500m.

Another gritty performance came from Pooja in the high jump, where she cleared 1.84m and took bronze. Pooja, who set the national record of 1.93m this season, missed all three attempts at 1.87m. Uzbekistan’s Sayfullaeva Barnokhon took gold with 1.90m, while Kazakhstan’s Kristina Ovchinnikova took silver with 1.87m. The 19-year-old Pooja is among the new talents to have emerged and has made steady progress. She won gold at the Asian Championships last year and silver at the Asian Indoor Championships.

India’s Dev Kumar Meena did well to set a national record in pole vault clearing 5.50m but finished seventh. Ernest John Obiena of the Philippines cleared a Games record 5.91m to win. There were no medals in the men’s (M Afsal) and women’s (Pooja) 800m, while Tanya Chaudhary (65.35m) and Anushka Yadav (64.56m) finished fourth and fifth respectively in the hammer throw.

Overall, India’s performance in track and field was below par. The big difference was the shortfall of five gold medals. India finished with 24 medals (1G-9S-14B), compared to 29 medals, including six gold, at the 2023 Hangzhou Games.