CutTheClutter: India's Golden Quartet shines at Asian Games again:Tracing our nation's rise in Women 4 x 400m Relay

ThePrint

The episode explores the remarkable 44-year legacy of India's women's 4x400m relay team, which has secured a medal in every Asian Games sinc

Key takeaways

• India's women's 4x400m relay team has achieved a record of 7 gold and 5 silver medals in the Asian Games since 1982.
• Vithya Ramraj broke P.T. Usha's long-standing 400m hurdles record by 0.67 seconds.

Main topics

• History of Indian Women's 4x400m Relay
• Asian Games Medal Records

Notable quotes

India's four into 400 relay teams have also qualified for the finals At the Olympics.

Conclusion

The episode highlights how consistent sporting traditions can be built

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:01) Taktak letter does sometimes talk about sport. I wish it would do more often and it would talk about sports other than cricket more often. We get an opportunity only rarely. One problem is India does not do that well in other sports. That said, when India does well or particularly when interesting points emerge, we need to talk about them. Even if you say I'm indulging myself, I know, I know, I know I will take that chart, but probably... I am not indulging myself. I would argue that this is something that should interest all of us. Now, if I told you that Indian girls, young Indian women, have created a franchise in Olympic sport at Asian level. What is that franchise? That franchise is that since 1982, that's going back 44 years, since 1982, in every Asian Games, Indian... 4 by 400 girls quartet, women's quartet, that means 4 runners. 4 runners with relay race, each one handing over the baton to the other. They won 1 medal in every Asian Games, every Asia since 1982. And these are not bronze medals. Bronze medals are also good, but more of these are gold. So 7 gold medals and 5... silver medals in 12 Asia since 1982. Isn't this a remarkable record? For a country, this does not do that well on track and field. Track and field or what in old days used to be called athletics. Now if I call this athletics and if I say athletes are people who run or who jump and who throw and who heave, that is track and field. Then somebody gets upset once I said so and even Abhinav Bindra got upset saying Everybody is an athlete including shooters. So now everybody is called an athlete. But Athletic Federation of India, International Athletic Federation, they still use the old definition. But the original definition of track and field is still athletics. That is like the mother of all sport. Or maybe mother is not good enough. Mother and father are the parent of all sport. Everything emerges from there. There India has not been... There, India has never been a great strength, even at the Asian level. Some prodigies emerged from time to time. Neeraj Chopra was the last one that emerged at World Level. There was P.T. Usha before that. There have been some more. Otherwise, India has always struggled there, even at the ASEAN level. This ASEAN, for example, India has won only one gold in track and field. And that gold also has come from who else but from our... golden quartet you can call them the golden girls golden quartet and the important thing is if this is carried on for 44 years it means that generation after generation india has found a golden quartet so this has become an indian brand four into 400 relay for women has become an indian brand india's four four into 400 relay teams have also qualified for the finals At the Olympics, beginning with Los Angeles Olympics. This is a great strength that India has discovered in sprint on track for Indian women. So as one lot goes out, the other lot comes in. There are new stars coming in and going out and then being replaced. So the four women who got us this gold medal this time, it was a tough race. It was a tough race. The weather was tough. It was raining. Track was wet. The four women who won us our solitary gold this time on track and who kept this tradition of 4x400 relay medal alive. Or more than that, kept the tradition going are Kiran Pahal from Haryana in Sonipat, MR Puvama from Karnataka, Prachi Chaudhary from Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh and Vidya Ramraj. From Tamil Nadu, Nitya Ramraj, besides the fact that she anchored this race, there is the anchor leg which finally seals the issue. In a relay race, she ran the anchor race. Before that, she had also broken P.T. Usha's record which had survived for 43 years. That is P.T. Usha's record of 400 meters hurdles. That original record was 55.42 seconds. That was set up at... Los Angeles Olympics, where Usha finished number four,