Vithya Ramraj still cannot understand the hype surrounding her.

The 28-year-old, who emerged as one of India’s standout performers at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, returned with three medals and a National record in the 400m hurdles, breaking P.T. Usha’s 42-year-old mark.

“In the last Asian Games (2023) in Hangzhou, I won three medals. I don’t know why I became popular this time,” she told select media at a function organised by jewellery brand Tanishq (Anna Nagar) on Wednesday.

She might sound modest, but her performance speaks for itself. She played the anchor role brilliantly to help India win the gold medal in the women’s 4x400m relay, ran a brilliant race to break Usha’s long-standing record in the 400m hurdles (bronze) and did well to guide India to a silver in the 4x400m mixed relay.

Though Vithya is happy to have won bronze in the 400m hurdles at the Games while breaking the National record (54.75s), the athlete and her personal coach, Nehpal Singh, felt she should focus on running sub-54 next.

“My coach is not happy with my timing in the 400m hurdles at the Games in Japan. In India, I am not pushed enough… hence, I am not able to go sub-54. I will work harder and try to achieve the timing my coach has demanded of me,” said Vithya.

When asked about the facilities at the cruise ship where the team stayed in Japan, Vithya replied: “I’ve lived in a room with 20 members. We lived like that for six years. There were no reservations during travel for competitions. My coach (Nehpal) said, ‘Don’t care about anything. Just go and run the race.’”

In all probability, Vithya will make her debut at the World athletics championships next year in Beijing. “I want Vithya to make it to the final. That’s the target,” said Nehpal.

According to Vithya, the key to her success at the Asian Games was the good sleep she had in Spala (Poland), where she trained prior to the Games. “I slept for 10 hours in those three months. That was what brought my performance,” she said.

She will be keen to maintain the sleep cycle to achieve higher dreams.

In his “best physical condition ever”, long jumper M. Sreeshankar, who missed the 2022 Commonwealth Games gold in Birmingham on countback, cannot wait to “change the colour of the metal” when the athletics competition gets underway at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games on July 27.

“This time, the chances are looking really good. We have a good opportunity to win two medals (Lokesh Sathyanathan and I),” the 27-year-old said during a virtual media interaction on Tuesday.

Sreeshankar says that the 2023 World Championships silver medallist and Paris 2024 Olympic silver medallist Wayne Pinnock might not compete in Glasgow because he is in the process of switching his sporting allegiance from Jamaica to Turkiye.

“Pinnock is switching his allegiance to Turkiye. So, he won’t be competing. But I think the 2019 world champion Tajay Gayle is competing. I think there will be two Jamaicans and two Australians in Glasgow. Competition in athletics in general, especially in long jump, has always been very strong. I’m pretty excited,” he said.

Sreeshankar said he has been training in Spała, Poland, for the past three weeks to acclimatise to the weather conditions expected in Glasgow.

“Spała is the best place to train right now. Not just in terms of the weather but also in terms of the tracks. Because the track we have in Spała is Mondo, which is the same surface that we will have in Glasgow”.