India’s women win Asian Games 4x400m relay as Usha celebrates successor generation

India won the women’s 4x400-metre relay at the 2026 Asian Games on Tuesday, with the victory drawing an emotional response from former Indian champion P.T. Usha, who had won the same event at the 1986 Games. Kiran Pahal, M.R.

Poovamma, Prachi Chaudhary and Vithya Ramraj formed India’s winning quartet. They finished in 3:29.69, ahead of Bahrain in 3:30.21 and China in 3:31.02. India was third when Ramraj received the baton for the anchor leg.

She passed China’s Zuo Siyu on the bend before holding off Bahrain’s individual 400m champion, Salwa Naser, down the home straight. Usha, now watching the competition away from the track, wrote on X that the result brought back memories of her own racing career. She said she could feel “every single stride” and celebrated the effort of the quartet.

The victory was particularly significant because Usha had been part of India’s 4x400m relay team that won gold at the 1986 Asian Games in Seoul. She won four gold medals at those Games. India had also taken the relay title at every Asian Games from 2002 through 2018 before finishing second in Hangzhou.

Poovamma, the most experienced member of the 2026 team, had been part of India’s winning relay squads in 2014 and 2018. The new quartet therefore combined an athlete with previous Asian Games success with younger runners. Usha described the result as evidence that the legacy of Indian women’s athletics was continuing.

It also ended India’s wait for an athletics gold at the Games, coming in the penultimate event of the athletics competition. The supplied report did not provide the athletes’ individual split times.