National Athletics Championships: Jyothi scripts history in 100m hurdles

Andhra Pradesh’s Jyothi Yarraji on Monday scripted history by becoming the first Indian woman to clock a legal sub-13 second time in 100m hurdles

Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh’s Jyothi Yarraji on Monday scripted history by becoming the first Indian woman to clock a legal sub-13 second time in 100m hurdles while smashing her own record at the National Open Athletics Championships in Bengaluru on Monday.

The 23-year-old Yarraji, representing Railways, cruised to victory in 12.82 seconds and, with the wind gauge reading 0.9m/s, she could not be denied her national record timing a second time. She had won the same event in the National Games in Gandhinagar in a time of 12.79 seconds but was supported by wind that exceeded the permissible limit.

Telangana athletes A Nandini took the bronze medal with a timing of 13.51 seconds while Jharkhand’s Sapna Kumari took silver with 13.26 seconds. Jyothi’s earlier national record was 13.04 set in May. Yarraji was unstoppable on Monday. She had already owned the meet mark with 13.18 seconds in the heats, bettering the record of 13.38 seconds set by Anuradha Biswal in Chennai 20 years ago. In the final, she hit the front by the time the seven athletes got to the second hurdle and was a comfortable winner.

The Railways star capped a fine season with a fumble only at the National Inter-State Championships in Chennai in June. She thus became the second fastest Asian in the event this year and earned a place just outside the continent’s all-time top 10 list.