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New year, new goals: Jyothi wants to make it a season to remember
After a successful Asian Championships and Asian Games, India's record-breaking hurdler is gearing up for the all-important Paris Olympics
It's been a busy day for Jyothi Yarraji. She has just finished an intense gym routine and is headed for a hurdles session, her third of the week. Well into her second "four-week training block" — as coach James Hillier calls it — Yarraji is methodically building up for what could be the biggest year of her career. The first stop will be the Asian Indoor Championships in Tehran (Feb 17-19) where she will compete in 60m hurdles. In the last edition of the Championships, held in Astana, Yarraji took silver with a national record time of 8.13s. She is hoping to go a step further this time.
"I expect to improve on my national record. That will give me confidence at the start of the season. Also, I want to get some competitive rhythm going. The confidence once gets from winning competitions is irreplaceable," she said.
A good finish in Tehran will also help her with crucial ranking points which will contribute to her chances for Olympics qualification, although making it to Paris shouldn't be a problem given her ranking and form over the past couple of years.
Yarraji's personal best of 12.78s is only 0.01s shy of the qualifying mark while her Road to Paris rank (23) is also well within the 40-athlete cut-off. "In my head, am not making a big deal about the qualification. I just have to do my personal best (PB). I would like to qualify via the automatic qualification route. Simple," she said.
It really is that simple for the 23-year-old who has developed a habit for improving her PBs. Two years back, in a memorable 16-day spell in Europe, she broke Anuradha Biswal's 20-year national record of 13.38secs and proceeded to improve her own mark twice. She ended that season with her first sub-13s run (12.79s, wind assisted) and a new national record (12.82s).
Next year turned out to be even better as Yarraji repeatedly dipped under the 13s-mark on Indian as well as foreign soil, and in the process, rewrote the national record yet again (12.78s). The exposure to world class competition at events such as Commonwealth Games, World Championships, and Asian Games, she reckoned, helped her understand her true potential.
"Past two seasons have been a dream. Each success and failure has taught me a lot. At CWG, I was very confused and nervous and messed up my race. At Worlds, the competition was just too strong which gave me a fair idea of my standing. Asian Games was another great learning because to come back from being wrongly disqualified and still win a medal said a lot about my mental strength. I train to perform under any situation," she said.
Yarraji also competed in a clutch of 200m races last year and also won an Asian Championships silver in the event. An unusual discipline for a hurdler, Yarraji calls 200m dash a "happy distraction" from her pet event.
"It was super fun. I enjoy running the 200m and the 100m. In fact, I would call my Asian Championships medal in 200m as my most satisfying race from last year because I ran despite being ill," she said.
Coach James Hillier believes training for 200m had a role in Yarraji's success last season. "She did sub-13s in May and she did a sub-13s in October. That's remarkable consistency and it wouldn't have been possible had she not trained for 200m. It has helped her gain strength and build endurance, and most importantly, she enjoys it," said the coach from Reliance High Performance Centre.
The duo is also working on Yarraji's start. A strong finisher who gains speed after the 60m mark, Yarraji is comparatively slow off the blocks. Her tall frame means she doesn't skim over the hurdles either, losing crucial microseconds.
The answer, the duo believes, lies in the gym. "We want to get her upper body stronger. That will give her lot more confidence and will also improve her running posture. She needs to get snappier over the hurdles, which is tough considering her long legs. But long lower limbs also helps her finish well in the final stretch. You can't compare her with the stockier, shorter American hurdlers," the coach explained.
Yarraji doesn't mind punishing her body. Over the past couple of months, she has spent more time in the gym than on tracks. The result is a marked improvement in her compound lifts that have increasingly become heavier. While last year she couldn't even lift her bodyweight (approx 50kgs), this year is throwing up encouraging results already.
She regularly bench presses around 65kg, her power cleans touch 75 kgs while the hip thrusts weigh 200kgs.
"I am ready to do what it takes. Four years back, I had little idea about Olympics and I had only heard about great athletes. Now, not only do I want to do well at the Olympics, I also want to be known as a great runner," she said.
