Jyothi Yarraji clinches women's 100m hurdles gold in Federation Cup Athletics; Who is this India's multiple record-breaking 100m hurdler-

NewsBharati    18-May-2023 11:55:32 AM
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Jyothi Yarraji displayed a remarkable performance, on the penultimate day of the Federation Cup Senior Athletics Championships, to clinch the gold medal in the women's 100m hurdles with great ease and even surpassed her own meet record in Ranchi on Wednesday.
  
Jyothi Yarraji
 
In the heats on Tuesday, Yarraji had already set a meet record by completing the race in 13.18 seconds. However, she didn't stop there and went on to further improve her record by clocking an impressive time of 12.89 seconds in the final, winning the gold medal in the process.
 
Not only did Yarraji claim the meet record, but she also surpassed the qualification standard set by the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) for the Asian Championships.
 
 
The qualification standard was set at 13.63 seconds, and Yarraji's outstanding performance easily exceeded it. Her achievements make her a strong contender for the upcoming Asian Championships scheduled to take place in Bangkok from July 12-16.
 
The hurdler has emerged as one of India's brightest athlete. Only in her early 20s, Jyothi Yarraji is currently the fastest women’s 100m hurdler in India. She has broken the record multiple times ever since.
 
Born on August 28, 1999, in Visakhapatnam (Vizag), Andhra Pradesh, Jyothi Yarraji, like many former and contemporary Indian athletes, grew up with limited means. Her father, Suryanarayana, works as a private security guard while her mother, Kumari, is a domestic help who works part-time as a cleaner in a city hospital. Combined, they earned less than Rs 18,000 per month.
 
It was in 2015 when Jyothi Yarraji first came into the spotlight after winning the gold medal at an Andhra Pradesh inter-district meet. Then, she moved to the SAI Centre in Hyderabad to train under coach N Ramesh, an Olympian and Dronacharya awardee. Though she consistently won medals in junior and senior national meets and got the opportunity to join the Centre of Excellence at Guntur, the facility got closed abruptly.
 
 
Jyothi then moved bases to the Odisha Athletics High-Performance Centre in Bhubaneswar in 2019, where she came under the influence of British coach James Hillier. Her progress under James Hillier took little time to show as in January 2020, she clocked 13.03 seconds to win gold at the All India Inter-University athletics meet in Moodabidri, Karnataka.
 
 
The mark was enough to hand her the Indian women’s 100m hurdles national record, but it couldn’t be ratified into the official record books. This was because the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) did not test her before the championship and neither was there any technical delegate from the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) at the event - both prerequisites to log an official timing.
 
 
However, without losing hope, she then went on to win another gold at the Khelo India University Games in February 2020. Later in the year, Jyothi Yarraji was set to make her international debut at the South Asian Youth Games but the COVID-19 pandemic played spoilsport. With other events like the Indoor Asiad and World University Games also called off in 2020, Jyothi Yarraji had to wait for her international bow.
 
 
Things took a further downward turn after she was sidelined for months with a back injury. And by the time Jyothi returned to training, things had become complicated. It took a lot of patience and effort from James Hillier and his team to restore Jyothi Yarraji’s confidence and physical strength. However, when she returned to action, she was better than ever.
 
 
After missing almost the entire 2021 season, Jyothi Yarraji gradually built up momentum in 2022. Starting in the 13.7-second range at the All India Inter University meet in Bhubaneswar, the youngster kept improving her timings.
And, now winning women's 100m hurdles gold in Federation Cup Athletics!