Jyothi Yarraji breaks national record twice at Meeting de Nantes Metropole

Jyothi Yarraji broke her national record twice at the Meeting de Nantes Metropole in Nantes, France on Saturday, January 25. She won the gold medal in the women’s 60m hurdles final with a timing of 8.04 seconds, beating second-placed Marione Fourie of South Africa by 0.01 seconds. Finland’s Saara Keskitalo finished third with 8.13 seconds.

Earlier, the 25-year-old athlete clocked 8.07 seconds in Heat 2 and went past her previous best of 8.12 seconds. She achieved the feat while winning the gold medal at the Asian Indoor Athletics Championship in Tehran back in February 2024.

Yarraji held the third spot in her Heat after Marione Fourie, who finished on top with a timing of 8.03 seconds, and France’s Sacha Alessandrini, who completed the race in 8.05 seconds. With her incredible performance, Yarraji also made her way through to the final of the World Athletics Indoor Tour Bronze level meeting.

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Jyothi Yarraji’s performance over the years

Born in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, Jyothi Yarraji won the bronze medal in the 100m hurdles at the 2021 Summer World University Games in Chengdu. Thereafter, she won the gold medal in the 100m hurdles and silver in the 200m at the Asian Athletics Championship in Bangkok.

In 2023, she bagged the silver medal in the Asian Indoor Athletics Championship in Astana in 60m hurdles. But Yarraji racked up her biggest achievement in the Asian Games in Hangzhou where she won the silver medal in 100m hurdles.

With a timing of 12.91 seconds, she finished second behind China’s Lin Yuwei, who won gold with her personal best timing of 12.74 seconds at the HOC Stadium. In the heats, she had a timing of 13.03 seconds.

On May 10, 2022, Yarraji also broke Anuradha Biswal’s national record in 100m hurdles after clocking 13.23 seconds at the Cyprus International athletics meet in Limassol.