Indian Athlete Jyothi Yarraji, an Asian Games silver medalist, won the women’s 100m hurdles event at the Harry Schulting Games 2024 athletics meet in Vught, Netherlands. This was her first event of the outdoor season in Europe.
Yarraji clocked 12.87 seconds to win the gold medal, finishing ahead of Dutch hurdlers Mira Groot (13.67s) and Hanna van Baast (13.84s). Despite her victory, she missed the qualification mark for the Paris Olympic Games by one-tenth of a second. The entry standard for the Olympics is set at 12.77s.
What lies ahead for Jyothi Yarraji after missing Olympic qualification?
This is the second time that Yarraji, who trains at the Reliance Foundation High-Performance Centre in Bhubaneswar, has narrowly missed the qualifying mark for the Olympics. Previously, she fell short of the qualifying mark by one-hundredth of a second when she set the national record of 12.78s for a bronze medal at the World University Games in Chengdu, China.
Yarraji is slated to compete in five more international tournaments in Europe in a bid to breach the qualifying mark for the Paris 2024 Olympics.
Jyothi Yarraji wins 100m Hurdles event at Harry Schulting Games in Netherlands.
Jyothi clocked 12.87s in Final (Heat timings: 13.04s).
Paris Olympics Qualifying mark: 12.77s pic.twitter.com/GeDUYU0kGw
— India_AllSports (@India_AllSports) May 9, 2024
In the same meet, Indian male hurdler Tejas Shirse won the 110m hurdles with a personal best timing of 13.56 seconds. He finished ahead of local Dutch athletes Joas van Hellemondt (13.80s) and Jamie Sesay (13.92s).
However, Tejas’ timing is still short of the qualifying mark in the men’s 110m hurdles for the Paris Olympics, which is set at 13.27s. The national record for India in this event stands at 13.48s, clocked by Siddhanth Thingalaya in 2017.
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