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P.T. Usha: Eternal icon for women athletes(COUNTDOWN)
By Ramu Sharma, Indo-Asian News Service
By Ramu Sharma, Indo-Asian News Service
New Delhi, July 27 (IANS) P.T. Usha will forever be an icon for women athletes in India.
It does not really matter that she missed out on a medal in the 400 metres hurdles in the Los Angeles Games. The very fact that she went as far as the final of an Olympic event was in itself an achievement.
With a bit of luck, Usha could easily have been judged third on that historic evening of August 1984.
It was a photo finish for the bronze medal with Usha, Christine Cojocaru of Romania and Ann Loouise Skoglulnd of Sweden all in contention. But when the split came, the medal went to Cojocaru, timed 55.41. Usha was fourth in 55.42 Skoglund fifth in 55.43.
It was that close, that narrow, a miss for Usha.
The winner was a surprised and unfancied E.L. Moutawakkil from Morocco while Judy Brown of the US claimed the second spot.
It was at once a most thrilling moment and heartbreaking occasion for this tall, lithe athlete from India. She had been initiated into the event some six months earlier by coach Nambiar and her first competition was in the nationals in Mumbai. For sheer strength, there was no one to beat her and she won the event easily there.
But watching her attack the hurdles, one felt that she had to go a long way before the obstacles became a part of her stride. She was clumsy, often breaking her pace before negotiating the hurdles.
Yet, between Mumbai and Los Angeles, she had worked extremely hard. She gained both poise and speed but unfortunately failed to get a medal.
It must be admitted here that the Los Angeles Games did not have the best talent available in the world. Like at Moscow four years earlier, this Olympics too suffered from a political boycott.
A boycott by the Communist bloc badly affected the Games, particularly in athletics. Most of the leading lights in women's athletics belonged to the Eastern bloc. But with stiffer challenge Usha could perhaps have improved on her timings.
She had however done something more. She had revolutionised women's athletics in India.
The result of that one single race in Los Angeles is there for everyone to see. Today Indian women's athletics is far ahead of the men's, the standards improving with each passing day, so much so that they bring in more medals at the Asian level than the men do.
In fact, even today the lone Indian medal prospect for the Olympic Games in Athens is woman long jumper Anju Bobby George.
Though unable to win a medal at Los Angeles, Usha was still in a class of her own at the continental level, where she dominated with a rare degree of comfort.
The Seoul Asian Games of 1986 were virtually taken over by her, Usha winning four gold medals, in the 200 metres, 400 metres, 400 metres hurdles and the 4x400 metres relay.
In fact, Usha in her career of over a decade, had won more gold medals than any other individual athlete.
No other athlete has dominated the national scene as Usha did. And her Los Angles time in the 400 metres hurdles still remains out of reach at the national level even after 20 years.
Usha was a phenomenon. There is no other word for this fine athlete who, in a space of six or seven years, blossomed from a raw and unskilled competitor to one of the finest specimens of an athletics machine in the word.
It was a pity that she could not convert her talents to win a medal at the Olympics. If anyone deserved it, it was Usha.
--Indo-Asian News Service
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