India's best athletic performances at Olympics

Milkha Singh

In the history of track and field events at Olympics, only six Indians and the women’s 4 X 400m relay team have reached thefinals since Independence.

The six individuals who’ve achieved the feat are – triple jumper Henry Rebello (1948), quarter-miler Milkha Singh (1960), 110m hurdler GS Randhawa (1964), 800m runner Sriram Singh (1976), 400m hurdler PT Usha (1984) and long jumper Anju Bobby George.

1. GS Randhawa finishes fifth at Tokyo Olympics 110m hurdles

GS Randhawa ran in 14 seconds the 110m hurdles race to finish a creditable fifth at Tokyo Olympics 1964. Hayes Jones of USA won the race in 13.6 seconds.

1 Hayes Jones USA (13.6 s)

2 Harold Lindgren USA (13.7 s)

3 Anatoli Michailow URS (13.7 s)

4 Eddy Ottoz ITA (13.8 s)

5 Gurbachan Singh Randhawa IND (14.0 s)

6 Marcel Duriez FRA (14.0 s)

7 Giovanni Cornacchia ITA (14.1 s)

8 Giorgio Mazza ITA (14.1 s)

2. PT Usha’s historic 400m hurdles final – 1984 Los Angeles Olympics

Watch the dramatic women’s 400m hurdles final at the Los Angeles 1984 Summer Olympic Games where PT Usha missed the meddle by a whisker.

There was a nail-biting photo finish for the third place. Usha lost the bronze by 1/100th of a second. She became the first Indian woman to reach the final of an Olympic event.

3. Sri Ram Singh’s 800m run in the finals – 1976 Montreal Olympics

At the Olympic Games of Montreal 1976, India’s Sri Ram Singh became the first male athlete to reach 800m finals. He finished in the seventh position. Cuban Alberto Juantorena won the 800 meters in 1:43:50, setting a new world record at that time.

Classification:

1 Alberto Juantorena 1:43.50

2 Ivo van Damme 1:43.86

3 Rick Wohlhuter 1:44.12

4 Willi Wülbeck 1:45.26

5 Steve Ovett 1:45.44

6 Luciano Sušanj 1:45.75

7 Sri Ram Singh 1:45.77

8 Carlo Grippo 1:48.39

4. 1984 Olympics 4 x 400 women’s final

Indian girls did their country proud by reaching the final of 1948 4 X 400 relay race. Line up for India in the final was – M. D. Valsamma (23), Vandana Rao (21), Shiny Abraham (19) and P.T. Usha (20).

They finished in the last position.

Final result:

1 United States USA Gold (OR)

2 Canada CAN Silver

3 West Germany FRG Bronze

4 Great Britain GBR

5 Jamaica JAM

6 Italy ITA

7 India IND

5. Milkha Singh’s famous 400m run in the 1960 Rome Olympics

This is the famous 400m race run by Milkha Singh in the 1960 Rome Olympics.

The flying Sikh of India is seen here making a speeding run round the bend. Getting a strong start, he was in 2nd position for a large part of the race before he was overtaken by the eventual three podium finishers.

This run was timed at 45.73s which remained as the national record for almost 40 years. An amazing run, that brings goosebumps to any Indian fan even after all these years.

6. Anju Bobby George finishes sixth in long jump at Athens Olympics 2004

Anju Bobby George of finished 5th in women’s long jump at the 2004 Summer Games in Athens.

Her best jump was 6.83m. Lebedeva won the event with a personal best of 7.07m.

7. Henry Rebello, triple jumper, pulled out due to injury in 1948 London Olympics

Henry Rebello

It was August 3, with the Olympics in full swing. The qualifying rounds were held in the morning.

Rebello easily made it to the final by clearing 49 feet, the qualifying mark being 48 feet 6 inches. But in the evening session during his first attempt, he tore a thigh muscle which forced the 19-year-old out of the competition.