A flame of hope called Usha

In boxing, India’s challenge ended with American heavyweight Henry Tillman knocking out Kaur Singh in the first round….

In other competition American superstar Carl Lewis won his second Olympic gold medal in the long jump and Joaquim Cruz held off a late charge by world record holder Sebastian Coe of Britain in the 800 metres to win Brazil’s first gold.

AUGUST 7: An exciting new talent burnt on to the international scene in the Coliseum Stadium here on Monday in the shape of a slight, demure 20-year-oldIndian.

P.T. Usha, showing a remarkable coolness for someone so young and inexperienced, blasted to a Commonwealth and Asia Record of 50.54 seconds in winning her women’s 400 m hurdles semi-final to go into Wednesday’s final with every chance of a medal…..

Even among Indian men, only three athletes have so far reached the final of an Olympic event — Flying Sikh Milkha Singh (400m, 1960 Rome); Gurbachan Singh Randhawa (hurdles, Tokyo Olympics) and Sri Ram Singh (800 metres, Montreal)….

Later, a beaming Usha told those present that she was confident of giving better time in the final. Her coast O.M. Nambiar said Usha was on her way to glory.

AUGUST 9: India’s P.T. Usha, despite a superlative effort, could only finish fourth in the inaugural women’s 400 metre hurdles event of the Olympics here.

Usha missed the bronze which went to Cristina Cojocaru of Romania by one hundredth of a second, the gold going to rank outsider Nawal Al Moutawakei of Morocco and the silver to Judy Brown of the USA.

Usha clocked a career best timing of 55.42 secs. The Moroccan girl, who brought her country their second Olympic gold ever, timed a record 54.61 while Judy Brown timed 55.20. Cristina Cojocaru bettered Usha for the bronze clocking 55.41.

Usha, who had upset Judy Brown, the silver medallist from USA in the semi-finals with a timing of 55.54 and a strong finish, adopted the same tactics. She started off slowly and accelerated at the midway stage.

Usha lost time at the hurdles and between the ninth and the tenth hurdle she was third.

She seemed to be a joint second with Brown after crossing the last hurdle but could not finish as strong as she expected.

Any one of the third, fourth, or fifth finishers could have won the bronze, the fifth being Ann Louise Skoglund of Sweden who finished one-hundredth of a second behind Usha.

While Usha in lane five and and Skolund in lane one were fighting it out, Cojocaru in lane two overtook them and finished with a fine chest forward.

Usha, who looked obviously disappointed when she left the stadium with her coach, however, brought some joy to the otherwise fading morale of the Indian contingent.

She goes down in the history of Indian track and field as the first women to make it to the final and the fourth Indian athlete.