India had a silver medal to protect, and Vithya Ramaraj had 400 metres to do it.
When the baton reached her on the final leg of the mixed 4x400m relay at the Asian Games on Thursday, her three teammates had done their part.
Manu TS had given India the start, Poovamma MR had kept them in the race, and Vishal Thennarasu had closed the gap. Now, Vithya was looking at the finish line, with Vietnam between her and silver and Bahrain already disappearing ahead.
She had been watching all of it from the sidelines, rehearsing her own race in her head. “I was very nervous. When the gun fires, my heart beats fast, tup tup tup,” she says. “But after watching my teammates, I get confidence.”
Manu had given India its best possible start, bringing the team through the opening lap in second. Poovamma, the senior-most member of the quartet, was next, and Vithya was not worried when the veteran runner appeared to lose ground early. “Poovamma didi, she knows everything. She is so mature,” Vithya says. “She may be slow in the first half, but I was confident because in each race, she has a strong finish. I knew she would bring us closer.”
Poovamma did. By the time she handed the baton over to Vishal, India were in the third spot. Bahrain and Vietnam were marching ahead, but from her vantage point, Vithya didn’t seem perturbed. “Vishal is a tall boy. Pakka he will cover the gap… I was confident.”
He did that, too, bringing India back into the medal fight before handing the baton to Vithya in third. That was when the nerves became real. “The three before me gave it all and that put pressure on me,” she said. “I just wanted that because of me, they don’t lose the medal.”
India’s T S Manu, M R Poovamma, Vithya Ramraj, and T K Vishal celebrate after winning the silver medal in the 4x400m mixed relay event during the Asian Games, in Nagoya, Japan, Thursday, Sept. 24, 2026. (PTI Photo)
Her coach, Nehpal Singh, was sitting straight in front of her. Vithya made eye contact with him and went back through the instructions they had rehearsed. “First 100m, go; then maintain; do not think about whoever is going fast or slow; be strong at the finish,” she remembers.
The first part of the lap was about restraint. The last part was always going to demand something more. Leaders UAE were out after dropping the baton and Salwa Naser had opened a gap for Bahrain that was beyond reach, but Vietnam’s Thi Ngoc Nguyen remained in front of Vithya. She kept chasing, waiting for the moment when she could make her move without running out of track – or energy. Then came the thought she had been saving for exactly this moment. “I just told myself, ‘Vithya, just one push. After this, you will get one leave. So just one push.'”
She gave it her all. The gap began to disappear. With the finish line closing in, Vithya moved past Vietnam and dragged India from third to second, crossing in 3:14.46, just 0.08 seconds ahead. Bahrain won gold in 3:12.87. “I didn’t want India to lose the medal because of me,” she laughs.