Jyothi Yarraji becomes first Indian woman hurdler to run sub-13s; breaks National Record again

Jyothi Yarraji, on Monday, broke the Indian national record for women's 100m hurdles once again as she clocked an impressive 12.82s at Kanteerava stadium during the National Open Athletics in Bengaluru.

Jyothi, in the process, became the first Indian woman to clock a sub-13 seconds time in 100m hurdles. Yarraji had broken the 13 seconds barrier during the National Games earlier this month, but the wind reading back then was above the permissible limit of +2m/s. She had clocked 12.79s then in Gandhinagar.

Yarraji's timing of 12.82s recorded today puts her amongst the top 10 fastest in Asian athletics history. This timing would have also given her a seventh-placed finish at both the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games - a tournament where her timing of 13.18s put her tenth overall after the heats.

The Andhra Pradesh athlete has been on a constant rise this year, after first having broken a 20-year-old national record officially at the Cyprus International Meet in May earlier this year. She was denied the national record twice before this - once due to the absence of doping officials in a meet in January, and then due to a wind reading of +2.1m/s in April.

Jyothi then went on a record breaking spree, as she went past the National Record twice more in the next 16 days. She eventually settled for 13.04s set at the Harry Schulting Games in late May 2022.

The 23-year-old then went quiet for a bit before re-emerging with a a stunning 12.79s run at the National Games - a record which she was denied due to the wind limit, before shattering the record 'officially' once again with 12.82s during the Open Nationals today.