“Vithya Ramraj was expelled from Reliance Centre” - Indian athletics chief national coach Radhakrishnan Nair
Indian athlete Vithya Ramraj, who hails from Tamil Nadu, made a name for herself after bagging a lot of laurels. Notably, she clinched a gold medal in the 37th National Games in the Women's 400m final at the Bambolim Athletics Stadium in October 2023.
In the same month, she equaled legendary PT Usha's national record of 55.42s in women's 400m hurdles to make it to the finals of the Asian Games 2023. Furthermore, she clinched bronze in the same category at the Asian Games, where she also displayed her heroics in helping Team India win silver in the 4x400m women’s and mixed relays.
However, everything is not well for the athlete. Despite being an Olympic year, she has still not joined the national camp for quarter milers and relay runners, which is happening in Trivandrum, Kerala.
Indian athletics chief national coach Radhakrishnan Nair had his say on Vithya not making it to the national camp. He stated that she was expelled from the Reliance Foundation Centre due to some undisclosed reasons.
“I don’t know where she is. She was in the Reliance (Foundation) centre, but for some reason, she was expelled from Reliance... somebody told me that she is in Chennai,” Radhakrishnan Nair told Sportstar.
Vithya’s coach Nehpal Singh opens up
It’s also important to note that in February 2024, there were talks of needles, syringes, and banned substances being found at a top academy in Mumbai which eventually led to the expulsion of a few athletes.
However, Vithya’s coach Nehpal Singh quashed these reports and emphasized that the athlete would be running the 400m Indian Open in March 2024 in Kerala.
“These are just rumours spread by people who are not happy with Vithya doing well. She is now training with me in Chennai for the last three weeks,” Nehpal stated.
“A few of my athletes were called to the Reliance camp, I was also called to coach them. We, including Vithya, (her twin sister) Nithya and Siva (a sprinter), were there in Mumbai for some time. The facilities there were good but I was not comfortable with the corporate way of things, so I left. And my athletes also left with me. Vithya was not expelled from the centre,” he added.
In October 2023, the JSW's Inspire Institute of Sport in Ballari, Karnataka, expelled 23 athletes from various sports after discovering syringes in multiple areas within the training center.