CM C Joseph Vijay announces ₹30 lakh award for Vithya Ramraj after Asian Games 2026 bronze
C Joseph Vijay announced a ₹30 lakh cash award for Vithya Ramraj after she won bronze in the women's 400m hurdles at the Asian Games 2026 in Aichi-Nagoya, where she clocked 54.75 seconds to establish a new national record.
Vithya, from Coimbatore, improved her personal best with the 54.75 run, surpassing PT Usha’s national record of 55.42 seconds that was set at the Los Angeles Olympics on August 8, 1984. She had previously equalled Usha’s 55.42 at the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games and her new time reduced the old mark by 0.67 seconds. The source describes the 54.75 as both a national record and a career-best for Vithya.
In his message, Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay said the ₹30 lakh will be disbursed on behalf of the Tamil Nadu government and congratulated Vithya for making Tamil Nadu and India proud. He added that her victory would inspire and instil confidence among the state’s youth and women and noted that PT Usha’s national record, set in 1984, had finally been broken after 42 years.
India’s Anu Raghavan finished fifth in the same final, recording 55.88 seconds, which was a personal best for her. The report lists Raghavan’s result and time as part of the final standings in Aichi-Nagoya.
Vithya’s podium at Aichi-Nagoya adds to an existing medal record: at the Hangzhou Asian Games she earned three medals — bronze in the 400m hurdles and silver in both the women’s 4x400m relay and the mixed 4x400m relay. The source also records that she ran in the 4x400m relay at the Paris 2024 Olympics and won bronze in the 400m hurdles at the 2025 Asian Athletics Championships in Gumi, South Korea.
The article notes Vithya’s background: her father is a truck driver and her mother enrolled Vithya and her twin sister Nithya, a 110m hurdler, at the Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu hostel in Erode because the family could not meet the expenses. The sisters later became the first pair of twins to represent India at the Asian Games.
The bronze in Aichi-Nagoya was Vithya Ramraj’s second medal at these Games.
