R. Vithya Ramraj of Tamil Nadu within the 400m run within the 62nd National Inter State Athletics Championship at Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar on Monday, June 19, 2023.
| Photo Credit: RITU RAJ KONWAR
Last yr was a shocking one for Vithya Ramraj. The 25-year-old from Tamil Nadu, who had been residing within the shadows of larger names earlier, equalled P.T. Usha’s National document on her method to the 400m hurdles bronze within the Hangzhou Asian Games the place she additionally helped India to silver medals within the 4x400m girls’s and blended relays.
The quartermiler-hurdler was the toast of the nation then however her beautiful progress had additionally raised eyebrows amongst shut followers of the game. Now, the fear traces have gone deeper.
Despite this being an Olympic yr, Vithya has nonetheless not joined the national camp for quartermilers and relay runners which is presently on in Thiruvananthapuram.
“I don’t know where she is. She was in the Reliance (Foundation) centre but for some reason she was expelled from Reliance… somebody told me that she is in Chennai,” Radhakrishnan Nair, the chief national coach, advised The Hindu from the Chennai airport on Monday evening.
Sometime in mid-February, there was speak that needles, syringes and banned substances have been present in a high academy in Mumbai following which a number of athletes have been expelled from there.
Vithya, additionally the National Games 400m champion, didn’t reply calls or messages from this author the previous few days however, late on Monday evening, her coach Nehpal Singh claimed that these have been merely rumours.
“These are just rumours spread by people who are not happy with Vithya doing well. She is now training with me in Chennai for the last three weeks,” mentioned Nehpal.
“A few of my athletes were called to the Reliance camp, I was also called to coach them. We, including Vithya, (her twin sister) Nithya and Siva (a sprinter), were there in Mumbai for some time. The facilities there were good, but I was not comfortable with the corporate way of things, so I left. And my athletes also left with me. Vithya was not expelled from the centre.”
Nehpal additionally confirmed that Vithya can be working the 400m Indian Open, the Indian monitor and subject season-opener for seniors, in Thiruvananthapuram on March 18.
Earlier, in October, 23 athletes from numerous sports activities have been expelled from the JSW’s Inspire Institute of Sport in Ballari, Karnataka, after syringes have been discovered in lots of locations within the coaching centre.
