She had just broken the meet record and everybody appeared to be after Jyothi Yarraji after the women’s 100m hurdles final in the 26th National Federation Cup athletics championships at the Birsa Munda Stadium here on Wednesday.
Photographers wanted to click pictures, the media wanted a comment and the dope control officials wanted to take Jyothi for testing as they did with almost all the winners and a few select athletes here.
With very few finals on the championships’ penultimate day, National record holder Jyothi was clearly the star of the evening. And though the 23-year-old wobbled a bit towards the end, she was far ahead of the others and bettered her meet record she had set the previous morning in the heats. It was virtually a one-horse race and she helped three girls behind her – Nithya Ramraj, Sapna Kumari, and Pragyan Sahu – to achieve the Asian Championships’ qualifying standard (13.63).
“I thought I was going to fall after the 10th hurdle...I wanted to have a fast time and probably rushed too much. But I’ve fallen so many times in training, so probably that’s how I recovered,” said Jyothi, from Andhra Pradesh who is a part of the Reliance Foundation and is coached Britain’s James Hillier.
Jyothi finished last season with a national record (12.82s) at the National Open and her 12.89s so early this season season offers hope that she could be on a record-breaking spree this year too.
But Jyothi was not done yet. Some 45 minutes later, she was back on track in the 200m heats and improved her personal best from last month’s 23.60s to 23.47s as she won her race.
She was grinning as she saw her time on the giant screen. “I didn’t expect that,” she said.
Her Reliance Foundation teammate, Tejas Shirse who had broken international Siddhanth Thingalaya’s meet record in Tuesday’s heats, clocking 13.61s (old record 13.65) was also an easy winner in the men’s 110m hurdles final.
Meanwhile, Shalini Chaudhary took the women’s discus throw title with a performance that was more than 15 metres behind Kamalpreet Kaur’s national record. Kamalpreet, incidentally, had failed a dope test last year and is now undergoing a three-year ban.
The results (finals): Men: 110m hurdles: 1. Tejas Ashok Shirse (Mah) 13.72s, 2. Madhvendra Singh (Raj) 14.01, 3. Sachin Binu (Ker) 14.23.
Hammer throw: 1. Damneet Singh (Pun) 64.91m, 2. Taranveer Singh (Pun) 64.81, 3. Lokesh Poonia (Raj) 57.61.
Women: 100m hurdles: 1. Jyothi Yarraji (AP) 12.89s MR, OR 13.43 own, 2. R. Nithya Ramraj (TN) 13.44, 3. Sapna Kumari (Jha) 13.58.
Discus throw: 1. Shalini Chaudhary (MP) 49.35s, 2. Paramjot Kaur (Pun) 48.76, 3. Salmi Kispotta (Odi) 46.31.
Tuesday’s late events: Men: Discus throw: 1. Harpreet Singh (Pun) 55.63s, 2. Nirbhay Singh (Har) 54.39, 3. Sachin Suhag (Har) 51.34.
Decathlon: 1. Usaid Khan (UP) 6970 pts, 2. Mohit (Har) 6794, 3. S. Gokul (Ker) 6752.
