No hurdle big enough for Jyothi Yarraji as she retains Asian Championship gold

The 100m women’s hurdles result at the Asian Championships in Gumi, Korea on Thursday showed a meet record of 12.96 seconds in the name of India’s Jyothi Yarraji — and the Andhra girl will take it for now. It may sound a below par effort compared to her own national record of 12.78 seconds, but it shows she is on course to reach her peak to try and qualify for the Tokyo World Championships in August.

Lying in second position to China in the medals tally with 14 medals after Thursday’s events (five gold, six silver and three bronze), a nearly full strength Indian contingent has been making news for all the right reasons. While Jyothi defended her title won in 2023 in Bangkok with a timing of 13.09 sec, Asian Games champion Avinash Sable became the first Indian to secure a 3000 m men’s steeplechase gold at the meet after 36 years, the first being the Arjuna Award recipient Deena Ram back in 1989.

Coming in behind Jyothi were Japan’s Yumi Tanaka and China’s Wu Yanni in second and third positions with timings of 13.07 (.061) and 13.07 (.068), respectively. Now training under British coach James Hillier at the Reliance Athletics High Performance Centre in Bhubaneswar, she will be building on the Gumi gold to qualify for the Worlds.

Speaking ahead of the Asian showpiece, Jyothi revealed that she made a few tweaks to her running technique — primarily to try and avert injuries. “I changed to seven strides (between hurdles) technique before the 2024 Paris Olympics but I got injured twice,” she was quoted as saying by PTI. “So, my coach (James Hillier) and I have decided to revert to my original eight-stride approach.

"Seven-stride approach is to run with more power, but it may lead to hitting the hurdles often. I have long legs and I got injured twice with the seven-step approach,” the 27-year-old from Visakhapatnam broke it down earlier this month.

“With eight strides, you can have more frequency (of turning the legs) and speed. I am training with eight strides this season and I am hoping to achieve success in Korea,’’ she added.

In another standout performance, the Indian women’s 4x400m relay team successfully defended their title, securing yet another gold for the country. The Indian quartet of Jisna Mathew, Rupal Chaudhary, Kunja Rajitha and Subha Venkatesan bagged the women's 4x400m relay gold with season-best timings of 3:34:18.

Neeraj not in fray

This was India’s first gold medal in the category since 2013 when the quartet of Nirmala Sheoran, Tintu Luka, Anu Mariam Jose and Poovamma Raju Machettira finished on top of the podium in Balewadi, Pune.

A conspicuous absentee for India is Neeraj Chopra, a double Olympic medallist and reigning world champion. He was supposed to be a part of the Neeraj Chopra Classic in Bangalore on 25 May, an event which was called off after the border conflict between India and Pakistan.