CHENNAI : World University Games in July 2023 and Motonet GP Jyvaskyla athletics meet in May 2024 brought similar results for India's track and field athlete Jyothi Yarraji. She broke the national record to win the bronze medal in China, and a year later, with the exact same timing of 12.78 seconds, she bagged a gold medal in Finland. However, she fell short of qualifying for the Olympics by a whisker.
The Andhra Pradesh athlete missed the Paris 2024 Olympics qualifying mark by 0.01s. Eventually, the 24-year-old became the first Indian 100m hurdler to participate in the Olympics through the world ranking quota.
Yarraji has put all of it behind her as she is training in Poland to approach her first-ever Olympics. "Preparations are going well throughout the season. After reaching Poland, the sessions are going great. And we are quite confident and expecting good timing in the Olympics," Yarraji told the media in the virtual interaction facilitated by Reliance Foundation.
Yarraji's coach and the chief of Reliance Foundation's athletics programme in India, James Hillier, expanded on the systematic plan in place for her in Poland. "We have a three-week training camp here at the Polish Olympics training center before we go into the village on the 29th of July. We're working on a specific plan for the Olympics. Pretty much working on speed, fast hurdling, and some good strength work in the gym. Lots of recovery in place as well. We have some last-minute things that we need to work on to get ready for the seventh of August when she has her first round," Hillier mentioned.
The coach also underlined the priorities he has set for Yarraji in the final intense preparation. "In the 100m hurdles, you have a series of constants. The constant would be the hurdles, their height, and spacing. Every athlete basically takes the same number of steps in 100m hurdles. We have to find a way to fit Jyothi’s body for the spacing in between the hurdles. I am trying to create an environment where I'm replicating the rhythms and postures that I want from her in a perfect-world situation.
My belief is if she can feel that rhythm, then if everything is good and her body allows her, she'll have a better chance to replicate that in a race. We are fundamentally working on three main things. Speed, breaking her rhythm and building it back as fast as possible and running somewhat out of control. I want her to feel like she's running so fast that she is almost out of control of her body and being open-minded to that, and the body being open to just being out of control. I believe it's easier to replicate something you have already done than to do something for the first time,"
The rhythm the duo spoke about plays a vital role in the final preparation as the main aim is to reduce the time Yarraji needs to complete the race. The national record holder echoed the sentiments of her coach and added that she is not trying to do something out of the box with her Olympics race approaching soon. "I don't want to give my body too much stress by doing something different or big, because when we think too much it goes wrong sometimes. So I just want to keep my body and mind the same way.
This is the Olympics and it is a great competition, but I think, as my coach has told me, this is the same competition every time. It is the same hurdles, the same distance, it’s all the same. So, if I'm thinking about doing something big here, it's not possible, right? The preparations are going here and I have to go and apply there. That's my target," she added.
Coming out of a hip flexor injury she suffered while competing in Finland meant Yarraji and the coaching staff were short on time to try many things ahead of the games. She admitted that it was a scary feeling. "It was not good for an injury to happen with the Olympics approaching. I worked on my meditation, breathing and worked on my concentration. It was step by step (to come out of the injury). But I made a good comeback in the National Inter-State Championships in June. The injury, in fact, was a good experience for me in my life; whatever the hurdles I have to cross," she answered honestly. However, Hillier opted to take positives out of the tricky situation.
"She has missed a bit of work because she had a little injury. So we have had to be very specific with the work we do. We don't have a huge amount of time, but that's not always a bad thing. Actually, it's quite good sometimes not to have too much time, because it allows us to be focused on what's important. I have said to Jyothi, these three weeks of your life, just get focused on being the best you can be. There is a hold for her around the Olympics. But you have to park that and leave that to one side. The task is still the same. There are still 10 hurdles. There is still 100m. The hurdles are still 8.5m apart. The task remains the same," the coach simplified it.
With the Athletics competition starting from August 1, Yarraji might miss the glitter of what promises to be one of a kind opening ceremony in Paris. However, she hopes to add more glitter to India's tally and she has put the work in for the same.