Coach 'fell apart', Athlete stayed strong: Inside Jyothi Yarraji's remarkable comeback

BHUBANESHWAR: Women’s 100m hurdler Jyothi Yarraji didn’t just return to competition on Wednesday. She completely owned the track, running below 13 seconds, winning the gold medal and qualifying for the Asian Games.And the one person who was the happiest with her return was none other than her coach James Hillier, Athletics Director, Reliance Foundation“From the day I got injured, he was worried about me. I kept telling him, ‘It’s okay coach, I will come back.’ He was in Europe then and felt bad that he couldn’t be here,” said Yarraji after the race on Wednesday – exactly a year after she injured her right knee.Hillier has been training her since July 2021 and naturally couldn’t stay calm once he learnt about the injury.

In his own words, ‘he fell apart’.“Jyothi has had to dig incredibly deep through this process. I can only admire her resilience. In many ways, she was stronger than I was when the injury happened. I fell apart, but she was the one reassuring me that she would be fine and that she would come back stronger,” remarked Hillier.“With an injury like this, you can get back to about 80% fitness relatively quickly, but it’s that final 20% that is the real challenge, especially when the training intensity starts to increase.”

Eventually, the national record holder was back on track in January but suffered a few setbacks, including a quad injury, a knee issue and a hamstring injury. Despite that, she made a successful return to competition and made it very clear that she isn’t going to be dethroned anytime soon.“Sitting in my room and watching all the action unfold was extremely painful. I never expected an injury like this, but it happened out of nowhere and I had to deal with it,” said the Asian Games silver medallist.“Then I saw on social media someone after a recent victory say that a new hurdles queen had arrived. But let me tell you, I’m not going to give that title away so easily. You’ll have to work very hard for it. Congratulations to whoever won the last competition, but now that I’m back, I’m ready to fight for it with everything I have.”Although she also competed in the 200m here, she couldn’t post a competitive time and had to be content with just the 100m hurdles title, which she won in 12.99s.“To be honest, I was expecting an even better time. I felt really good and was hoping to run around 12.60s. But going below 13 seconds is special in its own way. I had been praying every day for a comeback like this,” said the 26-year-old after her event last Wednesday.The focus will now undoubtedly shift to Asian Games, and she believes her improved mental strength will make the difference.“Physically, I don’t know if I’m stronger than before, but mentally I am ten times stronger. That’s what helped me come back and run 12.99 in my first race after such a long break,” she added before signing off to celebrate with her coaches and support staff, without whom nothing would have been possible.