India finally got its anthem moment
Vithya Ramraj said the desire to hear India’s national anthem pushed the relay team through fatigue. The stopwatch recorded the rest.
India’s women’s 4x400m relay team won gold in 3:29.69 at the Asian Games.
India’s women’s 4x400m relay team won athletics gold at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games on September 29, clocking 3:29.69. Bahrain finished in 3:30.21 and China in 3:31.02, according to the Olympic Council of Asia.
The team — Kiran Pahal, Poovamma MR, Prachi and Vithya Ramraj — ended India’s athletics gold drought at these Games. World Athletics recorded it as India’s seventh Asian Games title in the event and its only athletics gold in this edition. The government’s congratulatory release named the same four runners. The baton, at least, had better paperwork than most official ceremonies.
In an interview published on September 30, Vithya said that when the runners tired, they wanted to hear the national anthem and see the flag. She also said the team wanted to change the colour of its earlier medal. That is Vithya’s account, not independently confirmed as the shared motivation of all four athletes. The gold itself needs no interpretation: 3:29.69 is quite capable of speaking for Telangana’s runners’ countrymen without assistance from a press note.