Jyothi Yarraji shines on comeback as Anushka Yadav, Dev Meena break NR at National Inter-State Athletics Championships

BHUBANESWAR: Jyothi Yarraji made a memorable comeback from injury to finish on top of the podium in the 100m hurdles on the opening day of National Inter-State Athletics Championships as 18-year-old Anushka Yadav and Dev Meena created national records in the women’s hammer throw and men’s pole vault, respectively, at Kalinga Stadium here on Wednesday.Yarraji suffered her injury on this day last year — June 24 — and subsequently missed the World Championships. But she worked hard on her recovery and, in her first competition since returning, bagged the gold with a time of 12.99s to qualify for Asian Games. Nandhini K of Tamil Nadu finished second in 13.22s and also secured qualification.

But the result that took everyone by surprise was Anushka breaking the women’s hammer throw national record of 65.25m set by Sarita Singh at Federation Cup in Patiala in 2017.

She first surpassed the mark with a throw of 65.64m in her second attempt before improving it further with a 67.02m effort in her sixth and final throw. She had also won the gold at the National Games last year with a personal best throw of 62.89m.Trained by her father since the age of 12, the teenager had injured her right knee in March in a freak accident while working on the family farm. Her brother accidentally reversed a tractor onto her leg while she was attaching a tiller to the vehicle.

“She couldn’t train for nearly two months and competed for the first time only during the U20 Federation Cup in Tumakuru,” said her father Sushil Yadav, who trains her alongside Chirag Yadav and Gagan Yadav at Shri Krishna Inter College in Baleni, in Uttar Pradesh’s Baghpat district.“But she never stayed away from the hammer completely. She used to do light training in the evenings, make a few turns and, as she felt better, gradually increased her workload,” added her father, a former hammer thrower himself.As for Anushka, who first began as a sprinter but shifted to hammer throw after six months, she could not have been happier with her performance. All she hopes now is to do even better at Asian Games while bringing greater attention to the hammer throw event.According to her father, she has already thrown beyond 70m in training and, if she can reproduce that form in competition, she could even challenge for a medal in Japan.Madhya Pradesh’s Meena, meanwhile, continued his impressive form and cleared 5.46m on his third attempt to better his own national record and qualify for the Asian Games. He had earlier secured qualification for the Commonwealth Games as well and will be hoping to improve further at the two major events.Among the other notable results, Tamil Nadu’s Asha Ilango won the women’s triple jump with an effort of 13.89m, which also secured her qualification for the continental showpiece. In the men’s 800m, as many as 15 athletes bettered the qualifying mark during the heats.