Asian Indoor Athletics Champ: Jyothi Yarraji Bags 60m Hurdles Gold with National Record

India's two athletes Jyothi Yarraji and Harmilan Bains fetched gold medals in their respective disciplines on the first day of the Asian Indoor Athletics Championship. Jyothi won gold in 60m hurdles with a national record while Harmilan secured gold in 1900m.

Tehran (Iran): Star Indian hurdler Jyothi Yarraji shone on Saturday by breaking the national record in 60m hurdles to win a gold medal at the Asian Indoor Athletics Championship 2024 hosted in Iran.

Yarraji registered a time of 8.12s in the final of the 60m hurdles breaking the previous national record of 8.13s set at the same competition last year, which was held in Kazakhstan.

This is the sixth instance when Yarraji has broken the national record in her discipline. Last year, she broke the national record for the first time by clocking 8.20s and then bettered it on four occasions.

India won the first gold medal of the event earlier in the day when Harmilan Bains clocked a time of 4:29:55 in the 1500m final. Amongst Indians participating in the other events, Shaili Singh registered a best jump of 6.27m in the Long Jump final while Nayana James jumped a distance of 62.3m in her best attempt. China won the gold medal in the discipline with Xiong Shiqi making a jump of 6.55m and Japan won silver with Tan Mengyi taking a leap of 6.50m to win the silver medal.

With two gold medals on the opening day of the competition, India has already bettered their tally from last year when they finished with only one gold from Jyothi Yarraji. Tejas Shirse (60m hurdles), Tajinderpal Singh Toor (Shot Put), Dhanvir (Shot Put), and Ajay Kumar Saroj (1500m) will be in action in the evening session.

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