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RF Athlete Yarraji blazed to a meet record time of 12.96 seconds to defend her title at the Asian Athletics Championships in Gumi, South Korea.
Jyothi Yarraji.
Reliance Foundation Athlete Jyothi Yarraji blazed to a meet record time of 12.96 seconds to defend her title at the Asian Athletics Championships in Gumi, South Korea on Thursday in the 100m hurdles event.
The 25-year-old bettered the previous record of 13.04 seconds held by Kazakhstan’s Olga Shishigina and China’s Sun Yawei.
Reliance Foundation Athletics Director, James Hillier, lauded the efforts of the Indian athlete to take the top spot for the second time running in the event.
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“I am happy with Jyothi’s performance today. We are experimenting with an 8-stride technique to improve Jyothi’s race rhythm, though this is still a work in progress,” Hillier said.
“Now, it’s about being more specific with the training we do. So, we’ll start doing a lot more work over two or three hurdles. I’ll do some work where I’ll maybe do some shorter approach work into the first hurdle,” he added.
The event, which Yarraji also won at Bangkok in 2023, was delayed by a couple of hours this time around, but the hurdler kept her focus and stayed true to her preparations in the tense lead up to the gunshot to come out victorious.
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“I would like to thank the AFI for their unstinting support. I had worked really hard in the build up and put in a lot of effort,” Yarraji said following her triumph.
“I had some injuries earlier but here I felt really good. The conditions were challenging because of the rain and the delay,” the athlete from Visakhapatnam reflected.
“My focus before the race was on visualisation and mental preparation. I visualised how I’d start and crossing each hurdle in the race,” the 25-year-old added.
“I was focused on my own performance. I was very focused on getting a good start. It all worked out very well for me and I’m really happy,” she concluded.
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