Fill in the blanks: At the 1984 Summer Olympics, P. T. Usha narrowly missed a bronze medal by ________ of a second.

Correct — A. In the first Olympic women's 400 m hurdles, at Los Angeles 1984, P. T. Usha finished fourth.

Bronze, Cristieana Cojocaru: 55.41 s
Usha: 55.42 s
Gap: 55.42 − 55.41 = 0.01 s, one-hundredth of a second → option (a).

Why the others are wrong

• (b)
  One-tenth — One-tenth is 0.1 s, ten times the real gap. At that margin Usha would have clocked 55.51, but she ran 55.42 against the bronze's 55.41.
• (c)
  One-thousandth — One-thousandth is 0.001 s. The 1984 results are given to hundredths, 55.41 against 55.42, and that difference is one-hundredth.
• (d)
  One-fiftyth — One-fiftyth (one-fiftieth) is 0.02 s. That is the gap from the bronze, 55.41, to fifth place, Ann-Louise Skoglund's 55.43, not to Usha's 55.42.

The women's 400 m hurdles made its Olympic debut at Los Angeles 1984, and Nawal El Moutawakel of Morocco won it in 54.61 s.

P. T. Usha ran 55.42 s for fourth, one-hundredth of a second behind Romania's Cristieana Cojocaru. Four years earlier, at Moscow 1980, she had run the 100 m and finished sixth in her heat.

Key facts

• The women's 400 m hurdles first appeared at the Olympics in Los Angeles, 1984.
• P. T. Usha finished fourth in 55.42 s, behind bronze medallist Cristieana Cojocaru's 55.41 s.
• The winner was Nawal El Moutawakel of Morocco, in 54.61 s.
• At Moscow 1980, Usha ran the women's 100 m and finished sixth in her heat, in 12.27 s.

Common traps

• Moving the miss to Moscow 1980. Usha ran the 100 m there, and the 400 m hurdles near-miss came at Los Angeles 1984.
• Picking one-tenth because it sounds narrow enough. Subtract the times: 55.42 − 55.41 = 0.01 s.

No directly related past PYQ was found.