When coach N. Ramesh watched Jyothi Yarraji for the first time during the Sports Authority of India’s trials for its Hyderabad centre in 2016, he was very impressed with her height. Jyothi, then 16, was five feet and nine inches tall and had long legs. Ramesh, a Dronacharya awardee, felt he could mould her into a fine hurdler.
But weeks later, when he made her try out the hurdles, Jyothi kept crashing into the barriers. The coach then introduced her to the long jump, high jump, and javelin throw to find out where she would fit in. But nothing suited the young girl.
Jyothi has come a long way since those stumbling days.
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A late starter in athletics, Jyothi is now Asia’s fastest sprint hurdler and the only Indian to go under 13 seconds in the event. She has made breaking the 100m hurdles national record a habit. She is also the country’s fastest woman this year, having won the 100m at the recent Inter-State Nationals in Bhubaneswar.
Four years ago, eight of Asia’s top 10 in the women’s 100m hurdles were from Japan. Last year, too, there were eight Japanese in the top 10. But Jyothi’s rise has changed the dynamics at the top.
Apart from being the Asian leader in the event this season, Jyothi owns three of the 10 fastest times in the continent this year. The 23-year-old from Visakhapatnam, now with the Reliance Sports Foundation, is also 11th in the 100m hurdles Asian all-time list with her national record of 12.82s which came at the season-ending National Open in October 2022.
She is now hopping from country to country, competing with the world’s elite hurdlers. One such tour, where she travelled to four countries within 10 days, turned out to be a very memorable one. For, lined up in the lane next to her at the Orlen Janusz Kusocinski Memorial meet at Chorzow in Poland was Puerto Rico’s Olympic champion Jasmine Camacho-Quinn.
Jyothi froze for a few seconds when she saw Camacho-Quinn.
“Camacho-Quinn was next to me. She is my favourite athlete, and I was a little confused whether to watch her or to focus on myself,” said Jyothi.
“She had so much confidence in her skills, body language, and the way she carried herself. It was like watching royalty.
“I panicked,” she said.
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But those few seconds with ‘royalty’ taught Jyothi some very valuable lessons and upped her confidence too. Just imagine that the 100m hurdles was an event where India did not even send an entry for the last Asian Championship (Doha, 2019) or the last Asian Games (Jakarta, 2018). That was because nobody had achieved the AFI’s qualification standard, but Jyothi’s stunning climb has given a much-needed boost to the event.
What makes Jyothi so special?
“She’s internally motivated. She’s not fussed about medals, she likes them, but that’s not her motivation,” says Britain’s former international James Hillier, Jyothi’s coach at the Reliance Foundation.
“Her motivation is to get better, so she has very good internal motivation. A lot of athletes have more external motivation, and I feel that limits them.
“She always strives to be better. Even after an event, she keeps telling me, ‘yes, I messed this up’. She’s already thinking about the race and striving to get better. She’s happy she won; she’s delighted with the time, and already thinking about how she could be better. That’s a wonderful quality.”
The Asian Championships begin in Bangkok on July 12, and though Hillier feels Jyothi is capable of winning a medal, he made it clear that the Japanese are very strong in the event.
“Yes, 100 per cent (she can win a medal). The sprint hurdles are very tough, especially for Indians at the Asian level. The Japanese are very good technical hurdlers; they have good speed,” said Hillier, a 400m hurdler who represented Britain in the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester.
“Jyothi came second to a Japanese (Masumi Aoki) in the Asian indoors. But I fancy her to turn the tables. It’s 100 hurdles here, but indoors it’s 60m hurdles; it’s only 5 hurdles. In 100, it is 10 hurdles; it’s a different thing. I think Jyothi would beat this girl over 100 hurdles. She’s better because she’s more suited to 100 hurdles.”
Leaving a mark: At the National Games in 2022, Jyothi Yarraji also bagged the gold in the 100m, a non-regular event for her, after beating Dutee Chand and Hima Das, two of India’s premier women’s sprinters. | Photo Credit: RITU RAJ KONWAR
Hillier appears to be experimenting with Jyothi, trying to understand whether she can do other events too. He has been watching her 200m runs quite closely; she improved her personal best by nearly a second in a year with her gold-winning 23.42s at the recent Ranchi Federation Cup, and there could be a big surprise in a year or so.
“In training, her speed and endurance have been really good. So, I wanted to look at her 200 as well, to see what she can do. It just gives me information as a coach because we might want her to do the 400m hurdles, so it just gives me a little bit of information on the athlete,” he said.
Is she really ready for the 400m hurdles?
“Not seriously yet. It’s just in the back of my mind because her speed and endurance are so good. She has run really good 300s in training, and she quite enjoys the longer runs,” he explained.
One of India’s biggest days at the Olympics came in the women’s 400m hurdles, when P.T. Usha missed the bronze by a whisker in Los Angeles in 1984. And the country has had success in the event at Asian Games too, with M.D. Valsamma, Usha, and Ashwini Akkunji winning gold. Is it easier for Indians to win 400m hurdles medals than sprint hurdles medals at the Asian level?
“Yes, it’s less competitive. The World level is tough; she will have Sydney McLaughlin (Olympic and World champion) and Femke Bol (Olympic bronze medallist and World silver medallist), but at the Asian level, the 400m hurdles is not as competitive as the sprint hurdles,” said Hillier.
“The sprint hurdles is getting quite good now in Asia; the Japanese and Chinese girls are quite good. Let’s see, I’d like to keep a bit of an open mind on this and see how things develop.”
Tough competition: If Jyothi Yarraji switches to the 400m hurdles in the future, she will have to compete against the likes of Sydney McLaughlin (Olympic and World champion) at the world level. | Photo Credit: Getty Images
But isn’t the 400m hurdles one of the toughest events in athletics?
Yes, and that’s what I did. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. It’s pretty tough; let’s see. Ultimately, it’s where we see the most potential for the athlete. If we feel like she’s got more potential in a different event, we’ll certainly explore it.
“But right now, she’s a sprint hurdler, and that’s 100 per cent of our focus.” Hillier has already spoken to Jyothi about his 400m hurdles plans, and she has her inhibitions.
“No-no, not at all,” said Jyothi when asked whether she’d like to switch to the 400m hurdles in the future.
“My coach keeps telling me, ‘if you’re not running fast in the 100 hurdles, I’ll push you to the 400m hurdles’. I don’t want to be pushed into it.”
Well, time will tell whether Jyothi will write another surprising and exciting chapter in Indian athletics.
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