Vithya Ramraj finally nudged a number on Monday she had targetted all summer. In the process, the 25-year-old rekindled memories from a day almost four decades ago, rich in symbolism, poignant due to the heartbreak, and when the emotional tumult eased in millions of Indians, lasting gratitude and appreciation for the sheer effort.

Well, PT Usha has company. Vithya, the younger of the track running twins (Nithya, elder by a few minutes, is a sprinter and 100m hurdler) from Tamil Nadu dominated round 1, heat 1 of the women’s 400m hurdles at the Hangzhou Asian Games. It would have been just another heat won, but for her clocking 55.42 seconds to equal the number etched in Indian athletics as the one belonging to the track queen of the 1980s and 1990s.

Vithya Ramraj finally nudged a number on Monday she had targetted all summer. In the process, the 25-year-old rekindled memories from a day almost four decades ago, rich in symbolism, poignant due to the heartbreak, and when the emotional tumult eased in millions of Indians, lasting gratitude and appreciation for the sheer effort.

Well, PT Usha has company. Vithya, the younger of the track running twins (Nithya, elder by a few minutes, is a sprinter and 100m hurdler) from Tamil Nadu dominated round 1, heat 1 of the women’s 400m hurdles at the Hangzhou Asian Games. It would have been just another heat won, but for her clocking 55.42 seconds to equal the number etched in Indian athletics as the one belonging to the track queen of the 1980s and 1990s.

Vithya’s robust running and a slightly awkward high clearance of the hurdles recalls the style of Usha, though the stronger finish reflecting of modern training methods. On Tuesday, Indian fans will be glued to the race in China. Can Vithya go at least a fraction of a second faster than Usha did at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics in THAT famous 400m hurdles final?

First the history. The record belongs to India’s most successful woman track athlete, whose name is synonymous with India’s Asian Games victories. In 1984, Usha, India’s best 400m runner by a distance, added the one-lap hurdles to her schedule after the event was introduced in the LA Games. Usha had to force her way into the event by winning the trials held in Delhi with MD Valsamma, the 1982 Asian Games champion and an aesthetically pleasing hurdler not thrilled with the late competition.

And then there was the little matter of the 400m hurdles being the preserve of Edwin Moses. He won Olympic gold at Montreal in 1976 but missed the Moscow Games due to the West-led boycott. Now, the man with a professorial demeanor was back, he and his scientific hurdling a much sought after event in the City of Angles.

In the end, Moses won alright, but the women’s event made Olympic history. Nawal El Moutawakel became the first woman from Morocco and Africa to win an Olympic gold.

Usha’s strong performances in the previous rounds had raised hopes of a first medal for India in athletics. Foreign media was even learning to pronounce her name -- Pilavullakandi Thekkeparambil seemed more technically complicated than the event itself. It was heartbreak in the final as Usha, who later confessed dipping at the finish wasn’t a skill she had ever required as she dominated the track in Asia, missed out on a bronze by one-hundredth of a second.

After many replays of the final on the giant screen, Romania’s Cristieana Cojocaru was declared the bronze winner. Usha was heart-broken as a nation sank into mourning with her. “Till the sixth hurdle I was back, but after that I pushed forward with all my strength. By the penultimate hurdle, I had caught up with the leading runners,” she would recall.

As recriminations and debates eased following that medal miss, a grateful nation acknowledged that she was the pride of the country. The symbol of a medal dream that would be realised one day. A true successor to the legacy of Milkha Singh, who had missed bronze in the 400 metres at the 1960 Rome Olympics, leaving Indian fans with a similar sinking feeling.

That agony was wiped out with a bonus by Neeraj Chopra’s javelin gold at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.

But Milkha wasn’t wholeheartedly acknowledging when his 400m national record of 45.6 seconds, run on a cinder track and hand-timed – he refused to accept the electronically tweaked time of 45.73 secs – was declared bettered by Paramjit Singh in a national meet in Kolkata in 1998.

The Indian track giant had announced Rs.2 lakh for the athlete breaking his record, but the amount wasn’t given to Paramjit, who though received words of encouragement and advice to work harder to run faster.

Usha won’t have any issues if Vithya goes past her 39-year-old record – it is the oldest mark in the Indian athletics record book other than Shivnath Singh’s marathon mark of 2:12.00, set in Jalandhar in 1978 -- in an international meet abroad.

On the other hand, Usha, now the president of the Indian Olympic Association, will feel empathy if Vithya takes her record. The Ramraj sisters too have risen from a humble background – their father drove an autorickshaw – like Usha, whose father ran a modest textile shop in the north Kerala town of Payyoli.

After the Los Angeles heartbreak, Usha bemoaned her lack of experience running the hurdles. “I wept inconsolably,” she recalled. Vithya though has looked assured in the event. Her only rival is likely to be Kemi Adekoya, the Nigerian-born Bahrain runner.

Adekoya won gold in 2014 Incheon 2014, was stripped of her 2018 Jakarta gold due to doping, and then ran a personal best 53.09 secs to come fourth in the Budapest world championships. She didn't run under 55 seconds in qualifying and hasn't looked in great shape, but will surely push Vithya to owning a special mark.