Jyothi Yarraji falls short of Paris Olympics qualifying mark by 0.01 seconds

Jyothi Yarraji (100m hurdles) and Amlan Borgohain (200m) won medals at the World University Games in Chengdu, China on a spectacular day for India's Athletics contingent on Friday.

Jyothi Yarraji improved her own national record in the women’s 100m hurdles final as she won a bronze medal with a timing of 12.78s. While this was an improvement of 0.04 seconds from her previous best, it was an agonising 0.01 seconds short of the Paris Olympics qualifying mark. Sreeshankar, Avinash Sable and India's racewalkers have so far met the Olympic qualifying standard.

China’s Wu Yanni (12.76s) took silver while Slovakia’s Viktoria Forster (12.72s) won gold as Jyothi finished third.

Amlan Borgohain also won a bronze medal by clocking a SB of 20.55s in the men’s 200m final.

Speaking after the final, James Hillier, Athletics Director, Reliance Foundation, said, “This is another impressive medal winning performance for Jyothi. Incredibly, it comes with a personal best and national record number 10. What makes the effort even more special is that it came in the final of a global championships. She held her nerve well and very professionally controlled herself through the qualifying rounds in order to save energy for the final. This is a great performance and another step towards the World Championships and the Asian Games.”

“Amlan has worked really hard in the lead up to the tournament. To clock two of his four fastest timings ever in the semis and final is a superlative effort for him. To get a medal in this quality field wasn’t easy and will give him a lot of confidence.”

This was the third Athletics medal for India at the 2023 WUG. All of them have been bronze. Bhavani Yadav Bhagavathi won India's first medal in athletics, in women's long jump, earlier this week.

India also completed 25 medals at the 2023 WUG with these two Athletics medals. With 11 gold medals, India is still behind China, Kore and Japan at 4th spot on the medal tally.