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“It is no mean achievement” - Jyothi Yarraji’s first coach, Nagapuri Ramesh, on her Paris Olympics 2024 qualification

India’s hurdling sensation, Jyothi Yarraji, has made history by becoming the first Indian to qualify for the women’s 100m hurdles at the Olympics. Her mentor and first coach, Nagapuri Ramesh, couldn’t be prouder.

The 24-year-old narrowly missed the Olympic qualification standard of 12.77 seconds by just one-hundredth of a second, clocking 12.78 seconds at the Motonet GP Jyväskylä in Finland. However, she secured her spot at the Paris Olympics 2024 by finishing 34th out of 40 in the Road to Paris World Athletics rankings after the cut-off date of June 30.

A big reason for Yarraji’s success goes to her coach, Dronacharya Awardee Nagapuri Ramesh, who has contributed to Indian athletics immensely for over two decades, churning out some great athletes. One of them is Dutee Chand, who became the first Indian to achieve the qualifying mark for the women’s 100 meters at the 2016 Rio Games.

In a conversation with Sportstar, Ramesh labeled Jyothi Yarraji’s qualification as a dream come true moment and opened up about how he spotted the hurdler.

“It is a dream come true, as they say. My thoughts go back to 2014 when I first spotted her during the SAI selection trials at Saroornagar Stadium in Hyderabad. The moment I saw her (she had not come with anything specific about any event), I felt because of her height, she should be good in hurdles,” said Nagapuri Ramesh.

Ramesh’s vision and dedication to Jyothi’s development were evident from the start. Despite initial skepticism from others, he remained focused on preparing her for the Olympics.

“Well, I remember those days when people used to make fun of me when I was training her at the Hakimpet Sports School and at Gymkhana Ground and telling them that I was preparing for the Olympics. So, it is no mean achievement for an Indian athlete to make it to the Olympics, and that too in hurdles because it is such a technical event,” he added.

“Hats off to her indefatigable spirit” - Nagapuri Ramesh praises the dedication of Jyothi Yarraji

Jyothi Yarraji didn’t come from a financially well-off family and had to face a lot of hardships. Her father, Suryanarayana, works as a private security guard, and her mother, Kumari, is a domestic help who also works part-time as a cleaner in a city hospital. Despite their combined earnings being less than Rs 18,000 monthly (as of 2023), Jyothi never gave up on her dreams.

Ramesh highlighted the grueling training process that Jyothi Yarraji endured to become a world-class hurdler.

“It took a lot of time for us to mold Jyothi, who is from Vizag and born to a father who is a watchman and mother a domestic help, into a hurdler. I remember, she really struggled to get tuned to the event. There were often blood stains on her body because of the rigorous training schedule. But hats off to her indefatigable spirit. She kept pursuing her passion between 2014-19 and never complained. Once she won the National under-18 women’s hurdles gold, she never really looked back,” added Ramesh.

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