Jyothi Yarraji Wiki, Age, Family, Biography & More

Jyothi Yarraji is an Indian athlete who has won several medals in various national and international tournaments. She is the national record holder of completing 100 metres hurdles race in the fastest time and the first Indian woman to complete it below 13 seconds. She is also the national record holder for running 100 metres in the fastest time in Indian National Games.

Wiki/Biography

Jyothi Yarraji was born on Saturday, 28 August 1999 (age 24 years; as of 2023) in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, India. Her zodiac sign is Virgo. She completed her schooling at Port High School in Salagramapuram, Visakhapatnam. Her physical education teacher thought she could perform well in athletics, especially in hurdles running as she was tall and lean, and he persuaded Jyothi to run in the 100 metres hurdles events. When she was in 10th standard, she started to train seriously and won many medals in school-level tournaments. She pursued a bachelor’s degree of arts in history from Acharya Nagarjuna University in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh.

Physical Appearance

Height (approx.): 5′ 7″

Weight (approx.): 50 kg

Hair Colour: Black

Eye Colour: Black

Family

Parents & Siblings

Her father’s name is Suryanarayana, and her mother’s name is Kumari. Her father works as a security guard in Visakhapatnam’s Diamond Park area, and her mother works as a domestic helper and also as a cleaner at a hospital in Visakhapatnam. Her brother’s name is Suresh Yarraji.

Husband & Children

She is unmarried.

Career

In 2015, Jyothi won a gold medal in the Andhra Pradesh inter-district meet. In November 2015, she competed in the 100-metre hurdles race at the Indian Under-18 Championships held in Ranchi, Jharkhand; however, she could not qualify for the second round. In 2016, she moved to the SAI Centre in Hyderabad to train under coach N Ramesh, an Olympian and Dronacharya awardee. In June 2016, she participated in the 100-metre hurdles race in the Inter-State Championships held in Hyderabad, Telangana; however, she came 6th in the first round. In November 2016, she came 4th in the final of the 100-metre hurdles race in the Indian Under-18 Championships held in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. In November 2017, she came 6th in the final of the 100-metre hurdles race in the Indian Under-20 Championships held in Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh. In April 2018, she came 4th in the final of the 100-metre hurdles race in the Indian U20 Championships held in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. In November 2018, she won the bronze in the 100-metre hurdles race at the Indian U20 Championships held in Ranchi, Jharkhand. In 2018, she started training at the Centre of Excellence at Guntur, which got closed after the change of government in the state in 2019. In August 2019, she came 7th in the semi-finals of the 100 metres race and won the gold in the 100 metres hurdles in the All-India Inter-State Championships held in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. In 2019, she moved to the Odisha Reliance Athletics High-Performance Centre (HPC) in Bhubaneswar, Odisha after the British Coach James Hillier, who saw Jyothi in All-India Inter-State Championships held in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, persuaded her to train at HPC and made a plan specifically designed for her training. In January 2020, she won the gold in the 100 metres race and 100-metre hurdles in the Indian University Championships held in Moodbidri, Karnataka. In February 2020, she won the gold in the 100 metres hurdles race and came 4th in the final of 100 metres race at the Khelo India University Games held at Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneshwar, Odisha. She was selected for the national camp in 2020; however, the camp was cancelled due to the increase in COVID-19 cases. She suffered injuries in 2021 due to which her confidence dropped; however, her coach James and his team worked hard with Jyothi to help her recover from the injuries and gain her confidence back. In February 2022, she won the gold in the 100 metres hurdles in the All India Inter-University Championships held in Bhubaneshwar, Odisha. In April 2022, she won the gold in the 100 metres hurdles and came 7th in the final of the 200 metres race in the National Federation Cup held at C H Muhammed Koya Stadium in Thenhipalam, Kerala. In May 2022, she the gold in the 100-metre events of the Limassol International held at Tsirio Stadium in Limassol, Cyprus, Loughborough International held at Loughborough University Track in Loughborough, Great Britain, and Harry Schulting Games held at Vughtse Sports Club Prins Hendrik in Vught, Netherlands and won silver in the 100-metre hurdles race in the IFAM Oordegem held at Putbosstadion in Oordegem, Belgium. During the Limassol International held at Tsirio Stadium in Limassol, Cyprus, she set up a national record by running 100 metres hurdles in 13.23 seconds. In June 2022, she came 7th in the finals of the 100 metres hurdles in the National Inter State Senior Athletics Championships held at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. In July 2022, she won the bronze in the 100 metres hurdles in the England Athletics Senior Championships held at Bedford Athletic Stadium in Bedford, Great Britain. She competed in the 22nd Commonwealth Games held in Birmingham, UK and came 4th in the first round of the 100 metres hurdles race and came 5th in the final of the 4 X 100 metres relay race. In August 2022, she won the silver in both, the 100 metres race and 4 X 100 metres relay race in the All India Inter-Railway Athletics Championship held in Raebareli, Uttar Pradesh. In October 2022, she won the gold in both events, 100 metres hurdles race and 100 metres race in the 36th National Games held in Gujarat. Later in the same month, she won the gold in both categories,  100 metres hurdles race and 4 X 100 metres relay race in the National Open Athletics Championships held at Sree Kanteerava Outdoor Stadium in Bengaluru, Karnataka.

On 13 July 2023, she won a gold medal at the Asian Athletics Championships; she clocked 13.09 seconds to win the 100m hurdles final race. On 4 August 2023, she won bronze in the women’s 100 metres hurdles at the World University Games in Chengdu and broke her own national record by finishing the race in 12.78 seconds; interestingly, she missed the 2024 Paris Olympics qualification by 0.01 seconds. On 30 October 2023, she won the gold medal in the women’s 100m hurdles race at the 37th National Games, which was held in Goa, India.

She participated in the 2023 Asian Games, held in Hangzhou, China, where she won the silver medal in the women’s 100m hurdles.

Facts/Trivia

• In January 2022, Jyothi Yarraji completed the 100 metres hurdles in Indian University Championships held in Moodbidri, Karnataka in a record 13.03 seconds; however, the timing was not officially updated as neither she was tested by National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) before the championship nor there was any official from Athletics Federation of India (AFI) present during the race, which are requisites for logging an official timing.

• In April 2022, she completed the 100 metres hurdles race in the Federation Cup in a record 13.09 seconds; however, the record was not officially updated as the wind speed came out to be +2.1 metres per second which was +0.1 metres per second above the permissible limit of +2.0 metres per second for any national record.

• In May 2022, she won gold in the Limassol International held at Tsirio Stadium in Limassol, Cyprus by completing the 100 metres hurdles race in 13.23 seconds, which became a national record, and she broke the record of Anuradha Biswal, who ran 100 metres hurdles in 13.38 seconds in 2002. During the race, she could not identify the start of the race by an electronic starter as she was accustomed to the Indian style of starting a race by firing a manual gun, and started running after she saw other athletes running. She was the slowest runner to start from the blocks with a reaction time of 0.243 seconds.

• In May 2022, she later broke her own record by running 100 metres hurdles race in 13.11 seconds in the Loughborough International held at Loughborough University Track in Loughborough, Great Britain and further improved it by running 100 metres hurdles in 13.04 seconds in the Harry Schulting Games held at Vughtse Sports Club Prins Hendrik in Vught, Netherlands.

• After she finished 100 metres hurdle race in 13.04 seconds in the Harry Schulting Games held at Vughtse Sports Club Prins Hendrik in Vught, Netherlands, she could not find any official from the Dutch Anti-Doping Agency, and she had 24 hours from the time of the race to get the dope test done to get the timing ratified as a national record. Her coach, James Hillier, found a male doping control office and got the test done by the end of the 22nd hour to get the timing considered a national record.

  Jyothi Yarraji (right) with her coach, James Hillier

• When she was in Europe in May 2022, she tried different cuisines; however, she did not like the Marmalade, a bitter-sweet jam made of orange.

• In October 2022, during the 36th National Games held in Gujarat, she became the first Indian woman to complete 100 metres hurdles race below 13 seconds by running the race in 12.79 seconds, her personal best timing; however, it was not considered for the national record as the wind speed was +2.5 metres per second which was +0.5 metres per second above the permissible limit of +2.0 metres per second for any national record. She also made the record for the fastest 100-metre finish in National Games by running 100 metres in 11.51 seconds.

• In October 2022, she made the national record by completing 100 metres hurdles race in 12.82 seconds in the National Open Athletics Championships held at Sree Kanteerava Outdoor Stadium in Bengaluru, Karnataka. The wind speed during the race was 0.9 metres per second.

• She started running in her school days to support her family by earning money from the sports tournaments, and in an interview in March 2022, she revealed that she helped her family by sending them Rs 5000 per month.

• She could not participate in the marriage of her only brother in May 2022 due to her training.

• She gave up her favourite food, Hyderabad Biryani and Pizza, to follow the diet plan prepared by her coach to get the best results.

• She was named the Emerging Athlete of the Year at the ESPN India Awards 2022.

  Jyothi Yarraji was selected as the Emerging Athlete of the Year at ESPN India Awards 2022

• She is employed by Indian Railways.

• Her parents earned a combined Rs 18000 per month in 2015.

• In an interview, she said that her ambition is to win a medal in the Olympics for India.

• She considers the Jamaican athlete Usain Bolt and Indian athlete Neeraj Chopra her inspiration.

• Her university coach is Praveen Kumar.

  Jyothi Yarraji (right) with her university coach, Praveen Kumar

• Jyothi made the national games record in the women’s 100m hurdles race at the 37th National Games by completing it in 13.22 seconds.