P.T. USHA - The Queen of Indian track and field

 PILAVULLAKANDI THEKKEPARAMBIL USHA was born as the daughter of Paithal and Lakshmi, at Payyoli, a small village in Kozhikode, on June 27, 1964. The queen of Indian track and field for two decades, P.T. Usha has been associated with Indian athletics since 1979. The initials stands for Payyoli Tevaraparampil, her family names according to the traditional naming system in many parts of South India. Usha made her international debut at the Moscow Olympics in 1980 but she shone into limelight in the 1982 Asian Games in New Delhi, winning the silver in the 100m and 200m event. At the Asian meet in Jakarta in 1985 Usha established herself as the Asian sprint queen with five gold medals (in the 100m , 200m , 400m, 400m hurles and the 4*400m relay) besides a bronze in the 100m relay.

This magnificent performances was followed by an equally brilliant spell an year later at the Asian Games at Seoul where Usha notched up four golds and a silver medal.

The finest moment in Usha's career and also perhaps the saddest however came in a single race at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles She reached In the final and become first Indian female athletics to reached in final (and fifth indian). In the 400m Hurdles Usha missed winning the bronze by just 1/100th of a second. She recorded her best time of 55.42secs in that race - still an Indian national records - but lost the medal in a photo-finished. Usha said that she cried after the event because "It was difficult to believe that I had missed an Olympic medal by a whisker."

In 1979 the Kerala State Government started a sports school for women, and Usha was chosen to represent her district, at a cost of Rs. 250 per month paid by the state. In 1979 she participated in the National School Games, where she was noticed by O.M. Nambiar, who coached her through most of the rest of her career. India Today describes the athletics situation in 1979 as a time when 'athletics was very much a male sport and tracked - situated women a rarity'.

In 1991, she married V. Srinivasan, and their son Ujjwal was born the following year. Although she enjoyed domesticity and motherhood, she was drawn back to athletics, and astonished the country by winning bronze medals in the 200m and 400m at the Asian Track Federation meet in Japan, 1999. And, silencing her critics, at the age of 34 she set a new national record for the 200m, improving on her own previous record.

P.T. Usha started a school of Athletics for impart training to girl children from all over the country. The School, located at Koyilandi near Kozhikode in Kerala, recruits children in the 10-12 age group for its training.