I am going to war, have to be at my best, says hurdler Jyothi Yarraji

Mumbai: Young athlete Jyothi Yarraji has always been a fighter, constantly battling her way through difficulties to become the first Indian to qualify to participate in 100m hurdles at the upcoming Paris Olympic Games. Jyothi has been undergoing high-level preparations at the National High-Performance Training Centre in Poland, working with the Polish Olympic team, as she gets ready for the mega event.

The 24-year-old hurdler from Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh, who comes from an impoverished background as her father is a security guard and her mother a cleaning staff at a local hospital, believes the Olympics are going to be a war and she has to perform at her absolute best in Paris so that she does not have any regrets later in her life for not giving her utmost.

"So, the thing is, now I feel I am going to a war. So I have to be very, very, very good at what I'm doing. I don't want to tell after the race the mistakes that happened. I want to fix it now. So that's the reason I'm pushing my limits. Whatever it is possible for this stage and I'm trying to be the best," said Jyothi on Wednesday during an interaction organised by Reliance Foundation.

In this process of being at her best and giving her best performance, Jyothi is following a specific programme set by her coach James Hillier, the chief of Reliance Foundation's athletics programme in India. Hillier said they are working on three main things -- speed, breaking her rhythm, and building it back so fast that she looks like running "somewhat out of control".

Jyothi said she is gradually building up on all these aspects, particularly on being out of control.

"So out of the three aspects, 'out of the control' is one. So, the thing about women's hurdles is about speed. The main aspect of hurdles is coasting over the hurdles because they have a specific height. The coach always teaches me, 'When you're going to start like it, you have to feel like you (are going) downhill'. So whenever you go downhill, you have to feel like approaching very fast at the hurdles, to attack. So, if I have four repetitions, I will take them step by step so that I won't be confused," she said. IANS

Also Read: Jyothi Yarraji equals women’s 100m hurdle NR in Finland, misses Paris Olympic 2024 qualifying mark by .01s (sentinelassam.com)

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