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PRESS RELEASE “Payyoli Express” meets the Indian Ambassador The Indian Ambassador to Kuwait, H.E. Ajai Malhotra, welcomed the famous Indian woman track star, P.T. Usha, and her family at his residence on April 26.
He expressed gratitude to the authorities of the State of Kuwait for honouring P.T. Usha by treating her as a State Guest during her stay in Kuwait. Ambassador Malhotra recalled that P.T. Usha had won a gold medal at the Asian Track and Field Championship in Kuwait in 1983, while setting a new Asian record. She later went on to top her 400 metres hurdles semi-finals heat at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. In a photo-finish for third place in the Olympics finals, Usha missed the bronze by a hundredth of a second. Her five golds and a bronze won at the 6th Asian Track and Field Championship at Jakarta in 1985 remain a world record for total medals won by an athlete in a major international meet.
Her speed on the track and her job with the Indian Railways led to P.T. Usha becoming popularly known as the “Payyoli Express” across India, after Payyoli village in Kerala from which she hails. Earlier this week the Payyoli Association, Kuwait, feted her at a function at the Indian Central School, Abbasiya. P.T.
Usha is presently running a School of Athletics at Kozhikode, where she
trains young athletes and is confident that some of them would soon win
medals at top international athletics meets. Ambassador Malhotra wished
P.T. Usha good luck, success and happiness in all her endeavours. |
