When Jyothi Yarraji saw \u201812.99 seconds\u2019 flash across the giant screen after the women\u2019s 100m hurdles final at the National Inter-State Championships at Kalinga Stadium, she crumpled onto the track.<\/p>\n
For the first time in over a year, the tears weren\u2019t born of pain. They were of relief, joy and vindication. This was the finish she had dreamed of long before her world came crashing down.<\/p>\n
The unravelling of a season<\/h4>\n
The season prior had begun spectacularly for Jyothi. She swept the 100m hurdles and 200m at the National Games in February, followed by another hurdles gold at the Federation Cup. She defended her continental crown at the 2025 Asian Athletics Championships in May and added the Taiwan Athletics Open title to her cabinet soon after.<\/p>\n
All great signs of a great season to come, especially with major events right around the corner.<\/p>\n
Then, in a single training session in June, it all unravelled. An anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury mercilessly cut her season short.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A year later, she was back.<\/p>\n
It took 383 days for Jyothi to return to competitive athletics. In Bhubaneswar, she stormed to the national title, comfortably dipping under the Asian Games qualification mark. It looked like the perfect comeback.<\/p>\n
The timeline, however, was anything but. The blueprint set by her team mandated a gradual return through smaller competitions before the National Championships. This was while the window to secure a place at the Asiad was shrinking with each passing day.\u00a0<\/p>\n
If this wasn\u2019t jeopardy enough, Jyothi\u2019s body decided to throw new curveballs.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cShe had a couple of setbacks; she sort of injured other areas, and that was very frustrating for her. That\u2019s why she had to start her season at the Inter-State. What would\u2019ve been nice is if we\u2019d been able to have a couple of low-key competitions first. But that\u2019s how it is sometimes,\u201d her coach James Hillier tells The Hindu.<\/i><\/p>\n
It is never easy for a coach to watch their athlete buckle under the weight of uncertainty. Hillier, a man who prefers the comfort of control, was powerless through most of it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Jyothi overcame the fear of injury\u00a0\u2014\u00a0she had torn her ACL after smacking a hurdle foam in training\u00a0\u2014\u00a0to clock 12.99 seconds in Bhubaneswar.
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\n Special Arrangement\n <\/p>\n
<\/div>\n \u201cHe was in the US [when I got injured], and I called him before he called me,\u201d Jyothi tells this publication. \u201cHe knew about the nature of my injury, but didn\u2019t want to disturb me. He was with his family. I asked him to enjoy his time and come back. I told him that I was good and that I would come back soon.\u201d<\/p>\n Hillier still marvels at how their roles reversed. \u201cI blamed myself for not being there, but she immediately said, \u2018Coach, shut up. It\u2019s not your fault\u2019. She was the strong person, and I was the vulnerable one. She was coaching me at that point. It was quite amazing, really.\u201d<\/p>\n Five days after the surgery, the actual challenge \u2014 rehabilitation \u2014 began.<\/p>\n Jyothi was condemned to a painful monotony. While her fellow athletes trained on the track, she spent hours doing the simplest of exercises \u2014 holding her knee in place for 10 seconds, relaxing, and repeating, slowly increasing the duration over time. She remembers days when she would hesitate to take even a step.\u00a0<\/p>\n Hillier, meanwhile, enforced his recovery protocol: complete rest to the injury site, no off days for the rest. Jyothi, therefore, channelled all her energy into building upper-body strength.<\/p>\n Building confidence was just as important, but not at the cost of denying reality.<\/p>\n \u201cMy coach told me it was my time to feel sad, to cry and feel the pain. He said, \u2018I don\u2019t know what you are going to do in the future, but you will 100% do good,\u2019\u201d Jyothi says.<\/p>\n Hillier also understood the value of small comforts. For more than two weeks before her surgery, despite being on the other side of the world, he made sure her favourite blueberries, strawberries and chocolates kept arriving at her doorstep.<\/p>\n \u201cI had to call him and ask, \u2018What are you trying to do? You\u2019re making me fat.\u2019 And he would tell me, \u2018It\u2019s ok, now is your time to eat and sleep, do that.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \n Jyothi had frustrating injury setbacks during the recovery process, but persevered through them.\u00a0 <\/div>\n After chasing speed all her life, Jyothi was forced to stop and smell the flowers. She learnt to, eventually, of course, appreciate it. Along with it came hobbies like crocheting, learned entirely off YouTube. There\u2019s a knitted bag in her room that she has made from scratch.<\/p>\n Hillier, meanwhile, sought every possible edge, like bringing strength and conditioning coach Wayne Lombard into the team.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was nothing that Wayne discovered that we didn\u2019t already know, but it\u2019s just that reinforcement. That reinforcement is extremely powerful. It\u2019s often more powerful than finding something new. He played a hugely important part, I would argue, more on the mental side than the physical, in a weird way, even though he is obviously a strength coach,\u201d Hillier says.\u00a0<\/p>\n Perhaps it was he who gained the most by having Lombard\u2019s experience on hand.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have to remember the human being that stands behind the hurdle. That then became the starting point of this journey: to make sure she\u2019s okay first before dealing with anything else. If she wasn\u2019t, this injury would take twice as long to put behind us.\u201d<\/p>\n By January, Jyothi was finally back on the track. But other \u2018hurdles\u2019 followed. First came a quad injury, then another knee issue, and a hamstring problem. The finish line faded into the distance.<\/p>\n But Jyothi had blinkers on. The anxiety about a premature end to her career went away, but the fear of injury lingered. So much so that she placed cushions atop the hurdles in training to soften the impact if she clipped them.<\/p>\n Those nerves settled only after she clocked 13.14 seconds in the heats in Bhubaneswar. Slowly, belief pushed out fear.\u00a0<\/p>\n Hillier knew this comeback was about far more than winning another national title. The night before the race, he handed Jyothi a letter reflecting on everything they had endured over the previous year. Alongside it was another box of blueberries, though she ignored his instructions not to open the letter immediately.<\/p>\n \u201cSometimes you\u2019ve got to be a coach, sometimes a friend, a father or a brother. You have to be a chameleon as a coach. Maybe the letter came from a coach and the blueberries from a friend,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n With brown kinesiology tape wrapped around her right knee, Jyothi walked back into competition, a year after she smacked a hurdle foam in training and tore her ligament. She walked away as a national champion.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know if we\u2019re happy or relieved. It\u2019s a weird one, actually. It\u2019s been such an emotional journey that there\u2019s not a huge amount of emotion left. But it\u2019s a new beginning. We can crack on now with the rest of her career, the next chapter in her athletics journey,\u201d Hillier says.\u00a0<\/p>\n After her triumph, an emotional Jyothi, with plenty of cameras fervently clicking away, appeared to don an imaginary crown. Until the bigger golds she wants come along, this will do.<\/p>\n<\/div>\nThe confidence game<\/h4>\n
![\"Jyothi](\"https:\/\/th-i.thgim.com\/public\/incoming\/ow02sr\/article71208104.ece\/alternates\/FREE_1200\/Jyothi_3.jpg\" "\\"Jyothi")
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\n Special Arrangement\n <\/p>\nNew beginning<\/h4>\n