Jyothi Yarraji Sets New National Record In Women’s 60m Hurdles At 8.04s; Tejas Shirse Matches Personal Best – News18

Last Updated:January 26, 2025, 10:02 IST

Jyothi Yarraji began her season on a flyer as she set a new national record in the women’s 60m hurdles event at France.

India and Reliance Foundation athlete, Jyothi Yarraji began the 2025 season in top form as she beat the previous national record for the 60m hurdles event as she secured a top-spot finish at the Meeting de Nantes Metropole in France on Saturday.

Jyothi, whose previous best was 8.12s, clocked a time of 8.07s in the heats, where she finished third, before winning the final by further improving her timing to 8.04s, remarkably improving her personal best twice in the space of a day.

This was Yarraji’s first competition for the 2025 season. The qualification mark for the World Athletics Indoor Championships 2025, to be held in Nanjing, China, is 7.94 seconds for the women’s 60m hurdles. She last competed in the 60m hurdles event in February 2024, at the Asian Indoor Athletics Championships in Tehran, where she won gold with a time of 8.12s.

The silver medallist at the African Championships, South Africa’s Marione Fourie came in second in the final event with a timing of 8.05s followed by Finland’s Saara Keskitalo, who clocked 8.13 seconds.

She competed in the 2023 Asian Games, where she won silver in the 100m hurdles with a time of 12.91 seconds. She also debuted at the Paris Olympics, finishing fourth in the women’s 100m hurdles repechage event but failing to qualify for the semifinals.

Fellow Reliance Foundation athlete Tejas Shirse, who was coming fresh off a national record in the men’s 60m hurdles event at the CMCM Luxembourg Indoor Meeting, matched his personal best of 7.65s in the heats before clocking a time of 7.68s in the final to finish 3rd in his event.

The time needed to qualify for the men’s 60m hurdles in the World Athletics Indoor Championships in 2025 is set at 7.57s.

Jyothi and Tejas are currently on an overseas exposure tour in Europe with Jyothi having trained with the Netherlands team in South Africa ahead of her first competition of the year. Both of them will be in action at the National Games next month in Uttarakhand. Jyothi and Tejas are already the national record holders in the 100m hurdles and 110m hurdles events respectively.