Jyothi Yarraji underlines her versatility with 200m silver
The technician’s efforts to fix the faulty wiring linking the starter’s mike with the starting block speakers seemed to drag on forever. The eight women’s 200m finalists, already introduced to the crowd and waiting to set off before the problem was spotted, waited patiently.
Jyothi Yarraji stood almost motionless through all that on lane three, in this key event for India on the final day of the Asian Athletics Championships in Bangkok. She had secured gold in her main event, 100m hurdles, on a rain-drenched track two days earlier. But India’s best sprinter currently was doubling up in the longer sprint, in sunshine.
It was a dress rehearsal for the talented 23-year-old ahead of the Hangzhou Asian Games in September-October to help boost India’s medal count. On Sunday though, her focus was on Singapore’s favourite Veronica Shanti Pereira on lane 8.
The delay didn’t hurt much as Yarraji ran a powerful bend and almost drew level with Pereira with 50m to go. But the Singapore sprinter proved too strong, winning in a meet record 22.70 secs. Yarraji ensured second, at 23.13 secs, improving on her personal best clocked in winning the semi-final heat.
“I was trying to run under 22 seconds, but I’m quite happy with my personal best,” Yarraji said in a virtual media interaction. “I clocked PB in the semis and wanted to improve on that. If someone (fast) was there means I can push. But the Singapore runner was on the eighth lane and I was on the third. So, I gave my best.”
India’s chief athletics coach, Radhakrishnan Nair, said Yarraji, while helping India by running the sprints and relay, will also benefit in her main event. “To improve her 100m hurdles efficiency, running 200m below 23 seconds is important,” he said. Her hurdles national mark stands at 12.82 seconds, having gone under 13 seconds five times this season.
In men’s 800m, Kishan Kumar stuck to Qatar’s front-runner Abubaker Abdalla (1:45.53secs) from the start but it stayed that way till the end. More than not fetching India at least one gold on Sunday, he agonised despite clocking 1:45.88secs. “I wanted to set the national record, my focus was on the 1:45.65. In the inter-state, I led all the way to win. Everything was fine today, I put in all my effort,” he said.
In men’s javelin, DP Manu was lying third till he sent his final throw to 81.01m to clinch silver. Japan’s Genki Dean Roderik (83.15m) was way ahead, but Manu, with a best of 79.83m in his second attempt, was behind Pakistan’s Yasir Muhammad (79.93m) till the big late effort.
In women’s shot put, Abha Khatua equalled the national record of 18.06m to take silver. The original record holder, Manpreet Kaur, managed just 17m to finish third. It was some surge by Khatua, whose previous best was 17.13m. “I changed my training this year. Earlier, I used the glide technique, but now I have switched to rotate. Initially, I had problems understanding it, but then I got the speed and improved,” she said.
The men’s 4x400m relay team was pipped to second by Sri Lanka, but their timing (3:01.80secs) puts them at 13th and among the 16 top teams that will qualify for next month’s Budapest World Championships. Teams have until July 30 to qualify and India, the chief coach said, will run that day in Sri Lanka’s national championships to better the Bangkok effort and cement qualification. “We can’t take qualification for granted. We’ll send the same relay team to Sri Lanka. The women’s team (bronze) will also go, they can also qualify; they need to manage the race better, which we will make sure.”
India finished third overall in the medals tally, after failing to win any event on the last day. “I’m satisfied, but not happy. But overall, 27 medals are not a bad thing. Athletics is improving in India. Performances other than race walk, they were poor but won medals, were not bad.”
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