Jyothi Yarraji breaks 20-year-old hurdles record, wins gold in Cyprus International Meet

Indian hurdles athlete Jyothi Yarraji rewrote the national record when she clocked 13.23 seconds in the 100m hurdles event at the Cyprus International Meet.

The Andhra Pradesh-based athlete erased Anuradha Biswal's record of 13.38 seconds, set in 2002.

Cyprus' Natalia Christofi won the silver medal with a timing of 13.34 seconds, while Anais Karagianni of Greece won the bronze medal clocking 13.47 seconds.

Jyothi had a head wind speed of 0.1 m/s and won the gold medal.

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The Cyprus International Meet is a World Athletics Continental Tour Challenger category D event.

Third time lucky for Jyothi Yarraji

This is the third time Jyothi Yarraji has attempted to eclipse the national record, with the earlier two attempts not being recognized due to wind assistance.

Jyothi clocked a better timing of 13.09 seconds at the Federation Cup in Kozhikode in April 2022 but the timing was not considered for a national record due to wind speed assistance.

During the Federation Cup, the wind speed was +2.1 m/s, just marginally more than the permissible limit of +2.0 m/s.

In 2020, Jyothi clocked 13.03 seconds at the All India Inter-Univeristy Championships in Karnataka but the absence of a technical delegate from the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) and with the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) not testing her at the meet meant the national record couldn't be ratified.

Jyothi currently trains under Joseph Hillier at the Reliance Foundation Odisha Athletics High Performance Center in Bhubaneswar.

In the men's 200m event, Amlan Borgohain finished third, clocking 21.32 seconds. Amlan Borgohain clocked 20.52 seconds at the Federation Cup in Kozhikode and set a national record then.

In the women's 1,500 m event, Lili Das won the race with a time of 4:17.79 seconds.