Bangkok: The Asian Athletics Championships were being held in Bangkok on Thursday, and India's top track and field prospect, Jyothi Yarraji, won the women's 100 meter hurdles race, earning her nation's first-ever gold.

But when she crossed the finish line, Jyothi appeared upset. James Hillier, her coach, attributed it to her time, which was 13.09 seconds on the clock, which was adequate for first place but not quick enough for the hurdler who had high expectations for herself.

The 23-year-old, who is regarded as having a remarkable skill, is the only woman in India to run under 13 seconds, and she did so six times just this year. She had timed 12.98 seconds in the Bangkok heats.

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“I had prepared really well and felt it was my day but it was my bad luck with the rain pouring. I slipped a bit after the seventh hurdle and lost the rhythm so I couldn’t clock a great time. I expected a new personal best today. But I am happy that I won a medal and I am really pleased with my consistency,” Jyothi said after the race.

The journey of the Andhra hurdler has been difficult, particularly in the early years when her mother worked as a hospital cleaner and her father as a security guard.

In her early years, Jyothi's younger coach N Ramesh gave her money for bus tickets so she could go from her home in Visakhapatnam to the sports hostel in Hyderabad. She also received financial assistance from veteran athlete and Railways employee Karnatapu Sowjanya.

Ticket collector on the local Secunderabad-Lingampally route, Sowjanya used to work there. Sowjanya used to work as a ticket collector on the local Secunderabad-Lingampally route. “Lingampally was close to the stadium where she trained so I used to leave an amount with a colleague at the ticket counter. Jyothi would come and collect it after training. When I took up sports my seniors used to pool in money to get me spikes so I wanted to give back. I am glad I helped the right person,” said Sowjanya, who was a member of the 2010 4x400m Asian Indoor Championship gold-winning squad, expressed his gratitude for helping the appropriate person.

Jyothi is currently a Target Olympic Podium Scheme athlete and is also funded by the Reliance Foundation, a long cry from her early days of hardship.

The leader of the Asia season was the favorite to win the championship in Bangkok, but the terrain proved challenging for all of the hurdlers. When Jyothi cleared the seventh of ten hurdles at the Supachalasai Stadium, she almost fell over because she lost her balance.

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“It wasn’t a clean race but in the end, she won and that matters. She almost slipped on the 7th hurdle but I think that was fine. That was the reason she didn’t seem very happy at the finish line. She could have easily finished 4 to 5 metres ahead of her competitors,” said coach Hillier, athletics director at Reliance Foundation, who has been training Jyothi since 2021.

She achieved a feat that was previously thought to be nearly unattainable in October of last year when she became the first woman from the nation to run the 100-meter hurdles in less than 13 seconds.

Hillier said that Jyothi was fortunate that it rained in Bangkok. The coach sees to it that no practice is ever postponed due to bad weather. Amalan Borgohain said to Hiller right away after breaking the 200-meter record in Kozhikode while it was raining last April: “I broke the record because we trained in the rain.”

“I have grown up in New South Wales where it rains all the time so I was a little surprised to see people halt practice here when it rains. When I first saw this happen, I asked the athletes to come back and train. I stood there drenched in the rain and led by example. We have to train and be ready for any possible condition and that is why Jyothi won today,” said the coach.

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Ramesh, Jyothi's junior coach, was also happy of her because it was him who first noticed her talent when he accepted her into the Sports Authority of India Hostel back in 2016. Ramesh supported Jyothi even though she didn't initially show much promise of quickly rising to the top.

“She had good height and could grasp things quickly. She also had this fighting spirit in her and this unique ability to be calm even when things didn’t go her way. That is the reason I backed her. I was the one who chose the hurdles event for her,” said Ramesh, who is now the chief India junior national coach.

India finished the second day of the Asian Championships with three gold, two bronze, and Jyothi's medal.

Ajay Kumar Saroj, who took home the gold at the 2017 competition in Bhubaneswar, put on a tough performance to take first place in the men's 1500-meter race in 3 minutes and 41.51 seconds. After a string of unreliable performances leading up to the Asian competition, triple jumper Abdulla Aboobacker added another gold to his collection with a best jump of 16.92 meters. Tejaswin Shankar, a high jump Commonwealth Games medalist (7,527 points), and 400-meter runner Aishwarya Mishra each took home the bronze in their respective events.

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