Jyothi Yarraji sets new women’s 60m indoor hurdles national record in Denmark

India’s Jyothi Yarraji broke the seven-year old national record for the women's 60m indoor hurdles event at the Aarhus Sprint'n'Jump 2023 athletics meet in Denmark on Wednesday.

Jyothi Yarraji, who already holds the national record in women’s 100m hurdles, clocked 8.20 seconds in the heats to set the new national record in women’s 60m indoor hurdles. The previous mark of 8.34 seconds was set by Gayathri Govindaraj in Doha back on February 21, 2016.

With her run, the 23-year-old Jyothi Yarraji finished second in Heat 1 behind Ireland’s Sarah Lavin, who clocked 8.06 seconds. The Indian runner placed fourth overall across both heats combined to qualify for Final A.

In the 12-woman final, Jyothi Yarraji clocked 8.23 seconds to finish fifth. Lavin, a Tokyo 2020 Olympian, won the event with a timing of 8.02 seconds.

Amlan Borgohain, the other Indian competing in Denmark, finished third in Heat 1 of the men’s 60m indoor sprint to qualify for the Final B, where he matched his timing of 6.86 seconds to finish second.

Local athlete Tobias Gorgone Larsen won Final B, clocking 6.79 seconds. Amlan Borgohain is the Indian national record holder in both men’s 100m and 200m sprint.

The Aarhus Sprint'n'Jump meet was the first-ever indoor athletics competition for both Jyothi Yarraji and Amalan Borgohain as well as their first competition of the 2023 season.