National Games 2022: Jyothi Yarraji ‘a bit disappointed’ after missing out on new national record for the third time

National record-holder in Women’s 100m hurdles, Jyothi Yarraji won the gold in the event at the national games, but missed out on an even bigger personal mark.

Jyothi Yarraji after winning the 100m hurdles event at the National Games. | Photo Credit: KRISHNAN VV

Jyothi Yarraji rejoiced seconds after she crossed the finish line first in the women’s 100m hurdles at the National Games. 

The digital scoreboard showed she had crossed the line in 12.79 seconds. Yarraji had flown past her national record that stood at 13.04 seconds to become the first Indian woman to break the 13-second barrier in the 100m hurdles. But a few minutes later, the ‘record’ was not to be. The wind gauge at the IIT Gandhinagar stadium had registered a tailwind of 2.5 seconds. Timings with a tailwind less than 2.0 m/s are considered eligible for records. On a normally still day – no other race saw a tailwind close to that number – Yarraji had been denied. 

This was the third time she had ‘broken’ the record only to be denied for some reason or the other.

The first time Yarraji ‘broke’ the national record was in January 2020 at the Inter-University championships. She had clocked a time of 13.03 seconds to erase the nearly two-decade-old mark of 13.38 seconds set by Anuradha Biswal. All that effort was in vain, as that timing was not ratified since the organisers didn’t conduct a dope test. 

Yarraji clocked a time of 13.09 at the Federation Cup in Calicut in April this year, but again a wind speed of +2.1m/s denied her the record. 

Jyothi Yarraji (109) and Agasara Nandini (675) in action at the National Games. | Photo Credit: KRISHNAN VV

Jyothi eventually got the national record when she won the Cyprus International Athletics event with a 13.23-second run on May 11. She followed with a better time of 13.11s at Loughborough International Athletics Meet on May 22, before improving the national record even further with a time of 13.04 seconds at the Harry Schulting Games on May 26. 

Her bad luck at races would continue, though. At the Inter-State championships in Chennai this year, she attacked the hurdles hard and stormed into the lead but tripped on the seventh hurdle and finished last. She wept bitterly then, just as she did in Calicut. 

Yarraji, however, didn’t break down in Gandhinagar. “I’m a bit disappointed,” she admits. “For the last 1.5 years, we have worked very hard. It’s not a target to hit a number, but we are working step by step to get progress. This is the third time this has happened. But It’s fine. I have more competitions after this,” she says. 

Besides missing out on the national record, there was plenty to take back from this result. A time of 12.79 seconds would place her 39th in the world list in 100m hurdles in 2022. “Even if she didn’t have any wind assistance, she would have run a time of 12.8 or 12.9s,” says her coach James Hillier from the Reliance Sports Foundation. 

Despite not returning with a record, the National Games has been an exceptional tournament for Yarraji. Running her fastest-ever time in the 100m hurdles, she dragged the rest of the field with her. Second-placed Agasara Nandini ran 13.38 seconds, equalling Biswal’s mark set 20 years back. 

Yarraji also won the gold in the 100m, beating national record holder Duttee Chand and the highly rated Hima Das. She had clocked a new PB of 11.45 – reducing 0.13 seconds from her previous best – in the semifinals. 

According to Hillier, success in the sprint has been key to her improved performance in the 100m hurdles. “She’s just using her speed a lot better now. She’s got a lot of confidence after the 100m. The 100m is a bit of fun. To get a big PB is fantastic. She’s still a hurdler. Maybe she will do the odd 100m, but she is a hurdler and a hurdler needs to be fast,” he says. 

Hillier says that Jyothi’s time in the sprints suggests she could be running even faster in the hurdles. 

“The hurdlers who are running 12.50 are running 11.4 in the 100m. (Cindy Sember of the UK, who finished fourth at the Rio Olympics, has a season’s best of 12.50 this year and a personal best of 11.39 in the 100m). I showed that to Jyothi before the (hurdles) race. I said ‘look, the top hurdlers in the world are running 11.4. You ran 11.45. So, I know you can run 12.6.’ She’s not far off that,” he says. 

A 12.6 second time in the hurdles is a very achievable mark for Jyothi, feels her coach. That would move her from a talented runner to a real competitor. “Speed is the limiting factor in the 100m hurdles, so if she can do 11.4 in the 100m, she can do 12.6. If she does 12.6, she can win the Asian Games (the fastest Asian this season is Mako Fukube of Japan, who clocked a time of 12.73s). She could make the final of the world championships with that time,” he says. 

Hillier, however, is careful not to burden Jyothi with expectations. “Coach won’t put pressure on the athletes. He knows what he is doing, I know what I’m doing. The only thing he tells me is ‘what you are doing in training just do the same thing in practice. Don’t panic, don’t focus on anyone else’. He will tell me the same words all the time, ‘You can do it’,” Yarraji says. 

That mentality has allowed her to see the positives even in difficult situations, like at the Inter-State Championships where she tripped and fell while leading the race. Jyothi had come to that race after a month-long training stint in Europe and North Africa where she had competed with top athletes and raced multiple times in quick succession. 

“That international tour was a big plus for me. I hadn’t run so many races as I did in that tour, but it gave me so much experience. When I am competing with athletes who are better than me, it gives me an idea of what I need to do. I went to another country and saw the good athletes and how they are preparing for everything. I came to the Inter-state and I tried to apply that. I fell, but that race gave me a lot of confidence. If I wasn’t running fast, I could not have tripped on that hurdle,” she says. 

While that race in Chennai saw Yarraji attack the hurdles hard without knowing exactly how, she was more in command in Gandhinagar. Hillier, though, says there are more technical issues to work on. “Jyothi has long legs, so we must try and shorten the levers. Long levers move slower, short levers move faster. We have been working on that. We have been working on training her to get away from the hurdles using a powerful trail leg,” he says. 

He adds that Jyothi has reached the limits of where she could on natural ability. Now is when her real progress as a technical runner begins. “Hurdling is a natural thing to a certain level but, after a certain level, it isn’t natural. It must be taught. It’s very technical, you need to use biomechanics etc. She can run in the low 13 seconds on pure talent, but below that, she must get very technical. It’s going to take time. The top girls have been doing it for 6-8 years. Jyothi’s career is just starting now,” he says. 

“Today there was wind, tomorrow there will be wind. But one day there will be no wind. I will keep working and I will wait. The record will come one day,” says Jyothi Yarraji.

This means there will be many fast races in the future. She might get the record in some of them and be denied in others. But she is at peace now. “In the past, when I missed records, I was very hurt. This time I am thinking everything is good. Today there was wind, tomorrow there will be wind. But one day there will be no wind. I will keep working and I will wait. The record will come one day,” she says.