At Federation Cup, an identical twins make a mark as they soar over hurdles

During the medal distribution ceremony for the 100 metre hurdles on the Federation Cup on Wednesday, officers have been left confused due to related sounding names of an identical twins, certainly one of whom had gained the bronze.
At first look, it’s tough to inform aside 22-year-old Nithya Ramraj, the third-placed finisher, from her twin sister Vithya who’s a medal contender within the 400 metre hurdles closing to be held on Friday.
“It happens all the time to us. Sometimes the officials ask me why I am participating in more than two events mistaking me for my sister. At one junior meet, my sister got the best athlete award as the judges added my points to her tally. The stories are endless,” says Vithya, a 400 metre nationwide camper.
The twins took up athletics at school on the insistence of their bodily schooling instructor after they have been in Class 5. After a few years, their father Ramraj, a tempo driver in Coimbatore, couldn’t afford the charges on the English-medium personal college. He shifted them to a government-run establishment.
The transfer didn’t dampen their spirits, as a substitute Nithya and Vithya went from strenght to energy on the monitor.
“Soon the girls started winning competitions. When they were going to Class X, many private schools were keen to enroll them. So was the case when it came to college education. Every college in the region wanted to rope them in because of their achievements in sports,” says Ramraj over the cellphone. Ramraj guarantees that he isn’t speaking on the cellphone whereas driving. Ramraj works for at the least 9 hours a day and has no paid leaves. “I have just taken a short break to talk,” he says.
Vithya, who topped her group within the 400 metre hurdles heats, acknowledges her father’s sacrifice and says it spurs her to win medals.
The twins’ mother and father Ramraj and Meena.
The Ramraj twins share a really robust and inseparable bond. From the primary normal until the ultimate yr of school they sat subsequent to one another on the identical bench. They had chosen the identical topics in order that they may very well be collectively.
“Once during shuffling of classes in school, Nithya was sent to a different section. I cried all day and my mother had to request the principal to put us back together. We love each other dearly and talk daily over video calls. We also plan to get married together on the same day,” says Vithya.
Officials would have had a troublesome time figuring out one from the opposite in the event that they have been collaborating in the identical occasions.
They are near-carbon copies of one another, sport related hairstyles and are of the identical top and constructed. Most of their mannerisms are related. Even their voices aren’t a giveaway. Vithya admits that they’ve typically taken benefit of being an identical twins.
“Nithya is a little timid and doesn’t like to talk to people she has just met. So I have answered her phone calls pretending to be her on numerous occasions. In school, if she was late in submitting an assignment, I would go instead of her,” Vithya admits.
The twins admit in jest that they’ve puzzled if they may substitute one another in multi-discipline occasions just like the heptathlon and idiot everybody.
“If we do multi-discipline events we could and perhaps it would be difficult to figure out who is who,” Vithya says jokingly.
“Or maybe Nithya hides behind a banner and finishes the last leg of the longer race because she’s a sprinter. We keep making these plans (laughs),” Vithya provides.
Both Vithya and Nithya owe their success on the sphere to their father who has all the time backed them. When Ramraj determined to confess his daughters to a sports activities hostel in Erode, kin didn’t approve of the choice.
“They said how can you let your young daughters join a hostel but I did not care. My relatives turned their backs on us when the twins were born. They were saying things like ‘how will I get them educated and married’. I am an uneducated driver but that does not mean my mindset cannot be progressive. I did not care about what others said and always backed my daughters. They have made me so proud and happy that all the riches of the world cannot compare to it. It’s very disheartening to see people with such narrow mindsets,” Ramraj says.
The Federation Cup was a reunion of kinds for the sisters who met after nearly a yr. The nationwide campers have been stored in a bio-bubble and they aren’t even allowed to depart the National Institute of Sports premises with out permission from competent authorities. Vithya talks about how emotional they have been. “The moment I saw Nithya, I had tears in my eyes. She isn’t allowed to come to visit me in the hostel. We spoke to each other while maintaining all protocols.”