Indian athletics may have had its ups and downs over years but the women quartermilers, by and large, have been impressive and among the medals within the continent. The 4x400m relay team has been the country’s most reliable medal prospect at the Asian Games, the women winning gold consecutively from 2006 to 2018 before bagging silver last time around.

Two of the four members of that side, unsurprisingly, carried that hurt for three years but were the enablers of an exceptional performance to regain the top spot, fending stiff challenge from China and Bahrain on Tuesday.

“Vithya [Ramraj] and I were part of the team last time and we got a silver. We had spoken about returning only with gold next time. That has been the only motivation for the last three years. When I went back with a silver last time, my father said, ‘maza nahi aya’. I am sure this time he will be happy (laughs),” Prachi Chaudhary said.

It was the laugh of a champion from Saharanpur who had kept her promise to self. “Mostly, Indian girls have got relay gold, and we have done it again. I am sure it will be an inspiration to the juniors to continue this and for us to keep getting better,” she added.

Vithya echoed the inspiration part. Having already clinched a silver and bronze here, the gold was the icing on the cake for her. “It’s for all the women out there. On the track, it’s the Indian women who have won more medals. It shows there is no limit to what we can do. Everyone thought that an Indian cannot go below 55 seconds in 400m hurdles, but I managed it. Now, the target is sub-54. If others can do it, we can too,” she said with optimism.

That, however, came after the race. On the track, Vithya was a bundle of nerves with a million thoughts vying for space. “Before my turn, I was waiting at the starting line for almost 2.5-3 minutes for the first three legs. There was so much going through my mind. I didn’t know what to do, there was so much pressure. I was thinking that I was running the last leg and that anything could happen... I was praying, thinking about my coach, watching the screen. When Prachi came on the straight, they kept calling me to take position but I was in my zone. They had to pull me into position.”

Clearly, the mind was still running at a mile a minute. “At around the 300m mark and trailing the Chinese runner, I was thinking whether I should try and go past her. ‘Do I have the capability to finish the race, should I do it or not?’ I remembered my coach asking me to maintain the pace till the last 100m and go all out, so that’s what I did,” Vithya finally stopped to catch her breath. The celebrations, however, continued.