Jyothi gunning for glory at the Commonwealth Games

National record-holder has come a long way since her first victory at an inter-district meet

Jyothi Yarraji, who broke the women’s 100 m hurdles National record thrice in the span of three weeks during the recent exposure trip to Europe, is now gunning for glory at the Commonwealth Games.

Overcoming extreme hardships — daughter of private security guard Suryanarayana — the 22-year-old Jyothi, who first won a gold at the AP inter-district meet in 2015, has never really looked back. She has gone on to win medals in different age-groups at the National level.

Having set a National record 13.04s at the recent Harry Schulting Games (The Netherlands) last month, Jyothi said the exposure trip — organised jointly by Reliance Foundation and the Odisha State Government — had given her a feel of what it meant to be in the elite bracket at the international level.

"I am more focused and know its better to raise the bar," she said in a chat with The Hindu from Bhubaneswar, where she is training at the Reliance Odisha Athletics High Performance Centre (ROAHPC).

The 5-foot, 9-inch tall athlete from Visakhapatnam, who also owes a lot to SAI athletics coach N. Ramesh — she was at the SAI Centre (Hyderabad) for three years till 2019 — is currently under the tutelage of Briton James Hillier, head coach o f ROAHPC.

She had a comparatively smooth transition from the age-groups to the senior category, once she developed a fascination for hurdles because her PET at Port High School in Visakhapatnam, Krishna, felt she had the height for the event.

Interestingly, Jyothi, who applied for a job in the Railways, missed in 2020 what could have been her first international meet, the  South Asian Youth Games. She also missed the indoor Asiad and the World University Games because of the pandemic and will be making her international debut at the next CWG.