Meet Jyothi Yarraji: From Modest Beginner To Asia’s Fastest 100m Hurdler
Meet Jyothi Yarraji: From Modest Beginner To Asia’s Fastest 100m Hurdler
At 25, the national record-holder is redefining Indian women’s sprint hurdling with consistency, resilience and continental dominance.
Indian athletics has found a new standard-bearer in Jyothi Yarraji, whose rise from a modest upbringing in Visakhapatnam to the top of Asian sprint hurdling is now one of the most compelling sporting stories in the country. Her gold-winning run at the Asian Athletics Championships 2025, where she clocked a championship-record 12.96 seconds in rain-hit conditions, confirmed her status as Asia’s most reliable 100m hurdler.
Born on August 28, 1999, Jyothi grew up in a household where resources were limited. Her father worked as a private security guard and her mother as a part-time hospital cleaner, with the family income often stretched thin. Athletics became both a passion and a pathway forward. Her physical education teacher at Port High School Krishna in Vizag first spotted her potential, noting her height, agility and natural rhythm over hurdles.
Jyothi’s structured journey began in 2015, when she won gold at an Andhra Pradesh inter-district meet. A year later, she joined the Sports Authority of India centre in Hyderabad, training under Olympian and Dronacharya awardee N Ramesh. The decisive transformation, however, came in 2019, when she moved to the Odisha Reliance Athletics High Performance Centre in Bhubaneswar. Under British coach James Hillier, she refined her hurdle technique, sprint mechanics and race execution, turning raw promise into international consistency.
Her early career was marked by frustration as multiple fast runs were invalidated due to wind assistance or technical issues. The breakthrough finally arrived in May 2022 at the Cyprus International Meet, where she clocked 13.23 seconds to officially break India’s long-standing national record. Since then, Jyothi has repeatedly pushed the benchmark lower, establishing herself as the fastest Indian woman ever in the 100m hurdles, with a national record of 12.78 seconds.
Jyothi Yarraji – Winner 100 M Women's Hurdles#NationalGames2022 | @Media_SAI | #36thNationalGames pic.twitter.com/ttbKnnVKKV
— Doordarshan Sports (@ddsportschannel) October 4, 2022
Continental success soon followed. She won gold at the Asian Athletics Championships 2023, bronze at the FISU World University Games, and silver at the Asian Games, demonstrating her ability to perform across formats and pressure situations. Her successful title defence in 2025, achieved in challenging weather, underlined not just speed but competitive maturity.
Jyothi made her Olympic debut at the Paris Olympics 2024, exiting in the repechage round but gaining vital experience at the highest level. Her sustained excellence earned her the Arjuna Award in 2024, recognising her contribution to Indian athletics.
Now firmly in her competitive prime, Jyothi Yarraji represents a shift in Indian women’s track events, one built on technical discipline, elite training and mental resilience. With World Championships ambitions ahead, she stands as a symbol of how far Indian sprint hurdling has come, and how much further it can go.
