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No hurdle too high for Jyothi Yarraji
After a record-breaking 2022, hurdler Jyothi Yarraji has broken the 60m hurdles national record five times in 19 days this year.
Jyothi Yarraji has begun the 2023 season the way she ended her last — breaking national records for fun. If last year was all about scorching the 100m hurdles — she rewrote the national record four times — this time she has blazed her trail in the indoor circuit, breaking the 60m hurdles record five times in 19 days.
Jyothi’s latest record-breaking spree began on January 25 at the Aarhus Sprit and Jump competition in Denmark where she went past Gayathri Govindaraj’s time of 8.34s, set in Doha in 2016. Competing for the first time in an indoor event, Jyothi ran 8.20 seconds in the heats.
On February 3, at the Elite Indoor Track Miramas meeting in France, Jyothi produced an 8.18s effort in heats before finishing second in the final clocking 8.17s. A week later, at the Asian Indoor Athletics Championships in Kazakhstan, Jyothi improved the record again, topping the heats with 8.16s and winning silver with 8.13s.
"I am really happy to sign off the indoor circuit with my personal best," the 23-year-old said.
Jyothi's achievements become all the more impressive once her innate limitation for hurdles is taken into account. Coach James Hillier believes his ward is too tall for the discipline. Jyothi, thus, has never been a fast starter and she truly hits her stride after the halfway mark in a traditional 100m hurdles race.
The plan to get her to compete indoors (60m hurdles) germinated precisely to address this. "We wanted to improve her acceleration and running 60m hurdles was an excellent way to do that. The race requires the athlete to accelerate fast, there’s no room for energy efficiency. It's a lot easier for shorter girls to hurdle. Shorter limbs move faster and accelerate quicker, while Jyothi has long legs,” said Hillier, who trains Jyothi at the Odisha Reliance Foundation High-Performance Centre in Bhubaneswar.
"Jyothi's 100m hurdles technique is solid. The distance gives her the time to accelerate gradually, but we wanted her to pick pace much earlier. There is no wind in an indoor arena, which is a major contributing factor outdoors, so that helped her gauge her acceleration. Also, once you hit a hurdle in 60m, you are out of the race, unlike the 100m hurdles where you can continue running. So, that training will hold her in good stead in the 100 hurdles," he said.
A stickler for processes over results, Hillier is happy with Jyothi's timings. "I am happy that she gave her best performance in the Asian Indoor final. Honestly, even if she had finished fourth with her best time of the season, I would have been fine. I have always believed in processes; once you trust the process, results will follow. You can't control how your competitors run, but you can always look to run your best."
Jyothi, who was beaten by Japan's Masumi Aoki (8.01s) in Kazakhstan, agreed. "I never felt sad for finishing second because end result was never on my mind. All I wanted to do was improve my most recent time. That's my approach in every race.”
“The biggest satisfaction is when the process starts giving results. All those hours spent in the gym, the 300m runs, the painful build-up of lactic acid in muscles are worth it when you know you are improving. I got really emotional when I posed with the national flag,” she said.
The draining European circuit has left Jyothi longing for her bed and after a rest of two days, she and Hillier will return to training. The outdoor season is packed with high-profile events such as the Asian Championships, World Championships, and the Asian Games.
The qualification cycle for next year's Paris Olympics begins on July 1 and the mark for women's 100m hurdles is set at 12.77s. Jyothi, who has a personal best of 12.82s, will need another pathbreaking season to make the cut for her maiden Games. With the Asian Games and World Championships cramped in a space of eight weeks, her fitness and peaking process ought to be spot-on.
"Having spent a considerable amount of time with her at the High-Performance Centre, our team is well aware of how her body responds to injuries, recoveries, and peaking. She started growing into the indoor stretch after four races — or two tournaments — which gives us an idea about how she goes about her season,” said Hillier who has already started planning for Jyothi's outdoor events.
“Typically, we peak an athlete and then bring her down to basic fitness and endurance before peaking again. It all depends on the events we want to target. The packed calendar will significantly reduce our window of peaking and rebuilding, but we are confident that Jyothi will be ready to give her best.”
