Vithya Ramraj surges past China on the anchor leg as India takes Asian Games relay gold

Vithya Ramraj got the baton not in the lead and accelerated past China’s Siyu Zuo on the final leg at Nagoya City Mizuho Park Athletic Stadium.

She held off Bahrain’s Salwa Eid Naser and crossed first in 3:29.69 on Tuesday, September 29, 2026. Bahrain finished second in 3:30.21 and China third in 3:31.02. It was India’s first athletics gold at the 2026 Asian Games.

Kiran Pahal opened. M R Poovamma, 36, ran second and pulled India into podium position while the doping ban that kept her from Hangzhou still sat with her. Prachi Choudhary took the third leg before Vithya anchored. The day before, Vithya had broken PT Usha’s 42-year-old 400m hurdles national record, clocking 54.75 seconds for bronze. This gold was her third medal of the Games after mixed relay silver.

After the race Vithya said, "I had to push more. I overtook one, and then two. Then came the finish line. Salwa is a 48-second runner. She has the capacity to do that. But my teammates gave me the distance and because of that I was able to maintain the gap." She had talked herself through the close. "I told myself, 'It's the last race of your season, Vithya. Go for it. Whatever happens, come on, Vithya, you have to fight until the finish line. They all three did good, now it's your turn'. So I went for it."

Prachi had been on the Hangzhou silver team that ended India’s five straight golds from 2002 to 2018. "Everybody has been saying that there was no gold medal in athletics, so we were motivated to win the gold for the country. We are proud of the achievement." She added, "I was part of the relay team when we got silver the last time. So, we badly wanted to win here." Before leaving she had said, "I missed it last time because I won just a silver medal," and, "Before leaving for Nagoya, I submitted my measurements for the uniform."

Poovamma wanted the return. "I wanted to come back very badly. There were a lot of people who said whether Poovamma will be able to win a medal again." She kept going. "Many people asked when Poovamma will stop, whether some athlete can take my place. But why should I give up when I am performing well? Till I am performing, I will never give up. It's only the hard work and motivation that matter." It was her sixth Asian Games medal.

Vithya is the daughter of a tempo driver from Coimbatore. Prachi, a farmer’s daughter from Saharanpur, is chasing a DSP post in the UP Police. Kiran’s father had pushed back against her village in Sonipat so she could run. The four celebrated together on the podium. The clip shows that acceleration past the Chinese athlete in the final leg.

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