P.T.USHA

Pilavullakandi Thekkeparambil Usha (PT Usha), is well and truly Kerala's greatest contribution to sports.One of the greatest of Indian women athletes of all time, Usha has carved a niche for herself in her field. She was the first Indian woman and only the fifth Indian to reach the final of an Olympic event, by winning the 400m hurdles semifinal. With her proud visage and humble demeanour, Usha remains one of the greatest athletes India has ever produced.

Usha missed the bronze by 1/100th of a second in 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. She created a new Asian Games record in all the events participated during that year. Popularly known as 'The Payyoli Express,' Usha was, remarkably, neither the product of any academy or of any sports school. Perhaps the most striking quality of Usha has been her fortitude.Through times of despair and even when she conquered new heights,Usha remained shy and smiling, unwilling to display to her inner feelings.

PT Usha was born, as the daughter of Paithal and Lakshmi, at Payyoli, a small village in Kozhikode, on June 27, 1964. Her initial education was at Thrikottur school, Payyoli. It was her teacher, Balakrishnan, who first unearthed the sporting talent dormant in Usha. She then joined the sports division in Kannur. Her association with O.M. Nambiar, an athletics coach, helped her to scale new heights in athletics. Her craving for success only became more intense as the years rolled by. However, it would only be fair to say that Nambiar's stubborn -and selfish- refusal to let Usha seize the numerous training opportunities abroad cost her dear.

Usha, through sheer hard work and fierce determination, epitomised the Indian Quest for the elusive Olympic track and field medal, and came within a whisker of winning it, at the1984 Summer Games in Los Angeles. Her career-graph saw a meteoric rise after this and in the second phase of her career, after the split from Nambiar, she was trained by coach JS Bhatia.Today, she is the inspiration for hundreds of aspiring Kerala athletes aspiring to compete at the highest level and succeed.

Usha, with her husband Sreenivasan and her son Ujjal currently resides at Payyoli. She runs The Usha School of Athletics at Quilandi, which aims to bring forth new talents in the field of Athletics. She is determined to produce an Olympic medal winner, which she and India lost in Los Angeles, by one-hundredth of a second. That would be the perfect epilogue to the life of one of the greatest Indian athletes of all time.

Achievements
• National Record at the State athletic meet at Kottayam, 1977.
• She captured the limelight as a junior athlete in National Inter State meet at Kollam, 1978.
• Selected to the National Squad for the 18th Pakistan National Games in Karachi, 1980. • Selected to represent India in the Moscow Olympics, 1980.
• First Indian woman to reach the final of an Olympic event.
• Youngest Indian sprinter to compete in the Olympics. She was just past 16 then.
• Participated in the 1982 Delhi Asiad and won the first medal of the Games.
• In the 1983 Asian Track and Field Meet (re-christened as the Asian championship) at Kuwait, Usha tried out the 400m for the first time.She emerged successful as the one- lapper at an international arena for the first time.
• Her effort of 55.54 seconds in LosAngeles was a record since this was the first time the 400m hurdles was conducted in the womens section.
• Usha gathered 5 gold medals and one bronze, in 1985, at the Jakarta Asian Athletic meet.
• Won four golds in 1986, Seoul Asian games, claiming for herself the title of Asia's sprint queen.
• Following her marriage in 1991, she quit the scene for a while, but came back in1993 ,after 3 years of hibernation.
• Participated in the Olympic games from 1980, except the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.
• She last participated in the Olympics in Atlanta , 1996.

Prizes and Recognitions
• Recipient of Arjuna Award ,1984.
• Adjudged as the greatest women athlete, in 1985 Jakarta Asian Athletic Meet.
• Padma Sree in 1984.
• Best Athlete of the year Award from India Government in 1984,/85,/86,/87, and 89.
• In 1986 Seoul Asian Games, won the Adidas Golden Shoe Award for the best athlete by the Asian Amateur Athletics Association, Seoul Asian Games, 1986.
• 33 medals including 13 golds in Asian Games and Asian Championships.
• Won a total of 102 medals at National and International meets during her career.
• Won 1 gold and 2 silver at the 1999 Saf Games held at Kathmandu.
• Thirty International Awards, for her excellence in Athletics.
• In recognition of her achievements, a road at Payyoli,her home town, is named after her.
• The Kerala Government has set up the "PT Usha Sports Council" at Central Stadium, Thiruvananthapuram.
• Kerala Sports Journalists Award for the year 1999.

Usha School of Athletics - web site

Read much more about fascinating Kerala - her natural assets, achievements, famous sons, pressing issues and problems......