Century Snapshots

Century Snapshots - 1984
V Krishnaswamy

The Golden Girl's big moment

She had been to the Olympics once before. But on that occasion she was just 16 then P.T. Usha had been eliminated in the 100 and 200 metres. By the next Olympics she had managed to establish herself as the potential star in the continent, winning a silver medal each in the two sprints at the New Delhi 1982 Asian Games. That, however, went unnoticed in the wake of fellow-Keralite M.D. Valsamma's golden run in the 400m hurdles.

Following Valsamma's victory and the hype that surrounded it, and unknown to sports followers, Usha's coach O.M. Nambiar had identified the event his ward would excel in. Usha had been a hurdler in her school days and even won a national title in the age-group competition. Together with this, she had speed far greater than Valsamma's. So Nambiar reasoned that Usha could make a very good hurdler. Usha may not have been half as graceful when it came to floating over the flights, but she had the speed and strength. So the 400m hurdles it was tobe.

When Nambiar announced the new event for Usha, there was an obvious comparison being made between the two Kerala supergirls. Long before Usha had made multiple victories her prerogative, Valsamma had won five titles in a single national championships in 1983.

In the Bombay Nationals in 1984, Usha made her first appearance in a national championships in the 400m hurdles, and she beat Valsamma. An era had begun. She followed this up by clocking 55.7 seconds in the trials at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium. It evoked disbelief -- the timing would have earned her a place in the inaugural World Championships held a year earlier in Helsinki.

She may have been helped a little by the absence of the Soviet bloc when the Olympics were held in Los Angeles. No one can dispute the fact that Usha seemed to be improving with each race. She ran some pre-Olympic races in the USA which marked her as a dark horse.

And when it finally came to the Olympics, she virtually glided into the finals. Alas, it was not to be. Ahundredth of a second separated her from the bronze. Like Milkha Singh, she was destined to be consigned to the category of ``so-near-and-yet-so-far''. But she did become the first Indian woman to appear in an Olympic track final.

The immediate reaction was to perceive Usha was a potential Olympic champion. Scholarship offers poured in, but she refused them. The Australian girl, Debbie Flintoff, who had finished seventh in the same race in LA, went on to become the Olympic champion four years later, as Usha made her way out in the second round.

True, Usha became the undisputed queen of track in Asia -- a year later in the 1985 Asian Championships she won an unprecedented haul of five gold. Her moment had come and gone.