How a storage room warm-up turned into Asian Championship Gold for Jyothi Yarraji

When Jyothi Yarraji stepped onto the track in Gumi, Korea, at the 2025 Asian Athletics Championships, she wasn’t just defending her 100m hurdles title—she was navigating a storm, literally and figuratively.

The race was thrown off balance by a thunderstorm, delayed schedules, and bone-chilling temperatures, but Jyothi still found a way to strike gold.

Her coach, James Hillier, unpacked the challenges and triumphs of that day in a candid media interaction that followed the race.

“This was a crazy competition,” Hillier began. “Just as Jyothi was warming up, the heavens opened. A thunderstorm hit, temperatures dropped, and everything got delayed for two hours. She ended up warming up in what was essentially a storage room. But despite it all, she got the win — and that’s what it was about.”

Indeed, it wasn’t a day for chasing times. With a headwind and a drenched track, Hillier’s focus was solely on racing smart and getting the job done.

“We weren’t thinking about the world championship qualifying mark of 12.73. Today wasn’t about time; it was about position,” he explained. “But to run sub-13 in these conditions and break the championship record? That definitely bodes well for her.”

Striding through change

Much of Jyothi’s preparation for the championship revolved around technical fine-tuning, particularly her approach between hurdles. After experimenting with a 7-stride pattern during the indoor season, Hillier made the call to revert to an 8-stride approach.

“She just wasn’t getting what I wanted with the 7 strides,” he said. “We’re still playing around with it — it’s a work in progress. She was behind at the first couple of hurdles today, but once she got into her rhythm, from hurdle five onward, she flew. That’s when she’s at her best.”

Hillier believes Jyothi’s real strength lies in her ability to dominate the second half of the race. “She’s one of the best hurdlers in the world over the last three hurdles,” he asserted. “If we can just get her into the race a little earlier, then she’s going to run significantly faster.”

Setbacks and silver linings

The journey to Gumi wasn’t a straight line. Jyothi suffered a hamstring injury in early April — ironically on Hillier’s birthday — after overreaching a hurdle in training.

That injury sidelined her for nearly three weeks, forcing the team into damage control mode ahead of the Federation Cup, where she needed to qualify for the Asian Championships.

“She couldn’t run or hurdle, but she never stopped training,” Hillier emphasized. “She was in the gym, on the bike, in the pool. I made sure she stayed competitive, even in those sessions.”

It was a strategic shift in mindset and programming. “I told her: forget the injury. Let’s focus on what we can do. And once she got back on track, she started hitting training PBs again. She’s leaner and stronger than ever — her body fat is at its lowest, her muscle mass is where we want it — she just hasn’t had enough race practice yet.”

A mental game, won

If physical preparation was limited, mental resilience was not. Hillier credited Jyothi’s maturity and mindset as pivotal to her successful title defense.

“She didn’t get phased,” he said, recalling how other competitors grew frustrated with the delays. “She was focused on herself. I kept telling her, ‘Just trust your numbers.’ She hit every single training target we set this year — from sprint times to body composition. I said, ‘If you ever doubt yourself, just look at those numbers. They don’t lie.”

That belief became tangible during her final warm-up run, just before entering the call room. “She nailed a three-hurdle run — nailed it. That’s when I knew she was going to win,” Hillier revealed. “Until then, I was optimistic, but cautious. After that run, I knew she just needed to show her class and she’d take it. And she did.”

Road to the Worlds

With another gold medal around her neck and valuable ranking points in the bag, Jyothi’s path to the World Championships is well within reach. But Hillier knows the real work begins now.

“This competition came three weeks too early for us,” he admitted. “She’s not in race peak yet. But now we’ve got a clear runway — a race in Taiwan, then back to India for training, and finally heading to Europe. By then, I think we’ll have her flying over the first five hurdles like she does at the end.”

As Hillier summed it up: “It’s always nice to get a gold medal and still have loads of work to do. That’s what excites me most about what’s ahead.”

From a cramped storage room warm-up to defending her Asian title in freezing rain, Jyothi Yarraji proved she’s more than just fast—she’s built for adversity.

And behind that poise is a system, a coach, and a belief that greatness isn’t rushed.