New Delhi: For eight years, 400m hurdles athlete Anu Raghavan has been an Asian Games medallist without ever standing on the podium. The certificate is with her. The bronze medal, however, is not.When Bahrain’s Kemi Adekoya was stripped of the 2018 Asian Games gold after a doping violation, Raghavan moved from fourth to bronze. On paper, history changed. In reality, nothing did. There was no medal ceremony, no flag raised in Jakarta, and no applause from a packed stadium. Just an amended result sheet and an absence that has lingered ever since.“I won the bronze medal at the Asian Games despite finishing fourth,” Raghavan tells TimesofIndia.com. “But even now, I am sad because I still don’t have that medal in my hand. I have a certificate, but that feeling of being an Asian Games medallist is not entirely there,” she continued.On September 28 in Aichi-Nagoya, the 33-year-old will finally have the opportunity to claim that moment.Indian athletics has produced its share of comeback stories, but few have unfolded with quite as many detours.Raghavan’s journey began long before international medals arrived. A national champion from the U-14 age group, she graduated through the Asian and World Junior circuit before establishing herself as one of India’s premier one-lap hurdlers. Her breakthrough arrived in 2017 when she won a silver medal at the Asian Championships in Bhubaneswar, clocking a then personal best of 57.22 seconds.Yet the defining chapter of her career, in rather controversial circumstances, came a year earlier.In 2016, Raghavan was omitted from India’s Olympic relay squad despite being among the country’s leading quarter-milers. She challenged the decision in court, and the controversy became one of the biggest selection debates in Indian athletics.Rather than ending her career, Rio became a turning point.“As everyone knows, I was eliminated from the team in the first Olympics in 2016,” she says. “After that, I thought that if I continued, maybe my life would be fulfilled in sports. I realised I wasn’t an international medallist yet, so I had to work for it,” she explained.Two years later came Jakarta. She finished fourth in 56.92 seconds — then the race of her life. Months later, the bronze arrived by revision, not celebration.Paying to keep the dream alive
Anu Raghavan dislocated her elbow before the Federation Cup earlier this year. (Instagram)
What followed was perhaps even harder than the baggage of the Rio Olympics.Elite athletics is expensive, particularly for athletes outside cricket’s financial ecosystem. After changes to Kerala’s athlete support programme following the pandemic, Raghavan found herself funding her own career while continuing to compete nationally.“For the last five years, I have been training outside. I was spending my own money,” she says. “To compete in Indian Series meets, there is travelling, accommodation, everything. Our monthly salary is simply not enough,” she explained her hardships.The Palakkad-born remained a national medallist almost every year, yet sponsorship proved elusive.“I worked hard for five years to get sponsorship. After 25, it is very difficult to get one. Reliance Foundation gave me a chance. I was 32 years old, and they trusted me,” she said.The timing was significant.Her mother’s prolonged illness and subsequent death had left her questioning whether continuing was worth the emotional and financial burden.“I was under a lot of pressure because of my mother’s condition, and later her death. But they gave me confidence that I can survive in any situation,” added the athlete.An event that chose herAsk most hurdlers why they chose their event and you’ll hear stories about speed or rhythm. Raghavan’s answer is different.“The event chose me,” she laughs.As a schoolgirl, she played Kho Kho before entering Kerala’s sports division. Coaches tested her across sprinting, middle distance, jumps and hurdles. Her endurance stood out immediately.“My coach wanted me to run 400 metres. I kept telling him I wanted hurdles. He promised that once I reached Plus One (Class 11), he would make me a 400m hurdler. That’s exactly what happened.”She never looked back.From Asian Juniors to World Universities, every significant international appearance came in the 400m hurdles — an event widely regarded as one of athletics’ most demanding disciplines.It is neither a sprint nor a distance race. Ten hurdles interrupt rhythm every 35-45 metres, forcing athletes to combine speed, endurance and technical precision while fatigue steadily dismantles mechanics.Focus on not just training
Anu Raghavan is part of a 78-member strong Indian athletics contingent for the 2026 Asian Games. (Instagram)
If there is one theme that runs through Raghavan’s 2026 season, it is sports science.Modern athletics has become obsessed with data: force plates, stride analysis, biomechanical sensors and race modelling. For Raghavan, those numbers did something years of training couldn’t.They restored belief.“Earlier, we were just training,” she says. “Now we are using data, analysis, electronic equipment. We can actually read our strength. When I compare my numbers, I know I’m not weak. That’s what gave me confidence,” she said.Confidence mattered because her body had already tested her once this year.She crashed during the Federation Cup and dislocated her elbow. The injury briefly threatened her Asian Games campaign, but she recovered in time and produced the fastest performance of her career – 56.54m at the Indian Championships – this season to seal her place in India’s squad.
I was talking to a mindset coach because I felt I could not handle the pressure anymore. I even thought about leaving the sport. She asked me: ‘Why did you start?’ I kept thinking about that for an hour. After that, everything changed
Anu Raghavan
The difference, she insists, wasn’t physical. It was mental.“I was talking to a mindset coach because I felt I couldn’t handle the pressure anymore. At this age, I even thought about leaving the sport,” she says. “She asked me one question: ‘Why did you start?’ I kept thinking about that for an hour. After that, everything changed,” she said with a smile.One last surge towards the podium
Anu Raghavan qualified for the Asian Games at the Inter-State Senior Athletics Championships in Odisha. (Instagram)
With the Asian Games on the horizon, training became surprisingly uncomplicated. There are fewer heavy strength sessions now. Less emphasis on raw speed. More repetition of one thing: execution.“We’re focusing on race pattern now,” Raghavan explains. “Earlier it was fitness and speed. Now it’s about how to execute the race in competition,” she explained the process as the Asian Games begin on September 19.Execution, in the 400m hurdles, means knowing exactly how many strides separate each barrier, where to attack, where to conserve, and how to resist panic when lactic acid begins flooding the legs after hurdle six.Even her mental preparation follows the same script.“I visualise the race,” she says. “I think about my legs, my speed, and how I want to execute every hurdle.”Eight women from Asia are faster and younger than Raghavan, and six of them will compete in Aichi-Nagoya. The women’s 400m hurdles in Asia is deeper than it was in 2018.But medals are not always the only measure of redemption.For an athlete who fought Olympic exclusion, financed her own career, rebuilt herself after personal loss and waited years for recognition of a medal she had already earned, Aichi-Nagoya offers something more meaningful than another entry on her résumé.It offers the opportunity of finally hearing her name announced as an Asian Games medallist: in real time, on the track, with the podium waiting.