Usha joined the Sports Division at Cannanore to improve her sport talent. She was left in the safe hands of C.H. Paithal, the headmaster of the school. It was at Cannanore that another great master fired her imagination so much that together they achieved the impossible. His name was Madhavan Nambiar.

By 1977, Usha and Nambiar were inseparable. Nambiar had found the ward he had been waiting for all his life and Usha had found her guru. Nambiar would, from now on, care for her like a father. Usha's meticulous, systematic training began in earnest.

Usha had a regular training run on the beach of Payyoli. She preferred to be trained alone, for the vastness of the beach gave her a sense of freedom. She ran joyfully and freely, and she derived her strength from the serenity and peace of her beloved Kerala surroundings. Nambiar introduced his sand training in her programme to enhance her performance in the athletics, just after the 1982 New Delhi Asian Games. Sand training had enhanced the performance of many great athletes, from Edwin Moses to top flight Indian athletes like Milkha Singh and Sriram Singh.

Usha's athletic achievements are well-known to almost all Indians - two silver medals in the 1982 New Delhi Asian Games; 4o place in the 400m at the 1984 Jakarta Asian Meet; and four Golds and one Silver at the 1986 Asian Games in Seoul.

P.T. Usha's story is that of a gifted child, from humble origins, achieving international success through sheer dedication and immense hard work. "Never, never in the history of independent India has a youngster from a remote background town of rural origin caught the imagination of youth in particular and the public in general as Usha has," said a Professor of English in Usha's home town.