Sitting in my room, sometimes I wondered Is my journey over? Yarraji

A painful knee injury brought her to the brink of an emotional collapse last year but having battled through her fears with some hope and lots of resilience, hurdler Jyothi Yarraji is now aiming to turn her previous Asian Games silver into gold this time. The National record-holding 100m hurdler has no qualms admitting that she had fleeting thoughts of her career being possibly over during the one year of knee injury and rehabilitation.

The resolve paid off as she came back to win a gold medal in the National Inter-State Championships here on Wednesday. In the process, she breached the Asian Games qualifying time of 13.34 seconds set by the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) by clocking 12.99 seconds.

“There were a lot of nights when I cried a lot. I suffered many injuries earlier, also (before the ACL tear in 2025). While sitting in my room, sometimes I asked myselg ‘Is it done? Is this journey over?” she recalled.

“These things also came in my mind. But I kept telling myself that ‘it’s okay, Jyothi, you will do it, you will prove it’,” said an emotional Yarraji after her triumphant return.