Indian Athletes Excel In Europe As Jyothi Yarraji Wins Gold At T-Meeting 2023

Indian athletes stole the show in meets in Europe in the last few days with hurdler Jyothi Yarraji bagging gold in the T-Meeting 2023 athletics meet in Tilburg, the Netherlands while Selva Prabhu wins a gold medal in the triple jump at Venizelia-Chania 2023 athletics in Greece.

In Tilburg, Jyothi Yarraji clinched the gold medal in the women's 100m hurdles event while Mohammed Afsal Pulikkalakath finished third in the men's 400m race at the T-Meeting 2023 athletics meet, on Monday.

The 23-year-old Jyothi clocked 13.20s in the final to win the event at the category E World Ranking competition. En route to the final, Jyothi topped the heats with a time of 13.08s.

Angel Agwazie of Belgium clinched the silver with 13.64s while Dutch athlete Mira Groot clocked 13.78s to bag the bronze.

This was Jyothi Yarraji's second gold medal in two days. The Andhra runner clinched the gold medal in the women's 100m hurdles event at the Kurpfalz Gala 2023 athletics meet, in Weinheim, Germany on Saturday.

In Germany, Jyothi Yarraji clocked a season-best time of 12.84s - just 0.02 seconds off her national record -- in the final to medal at the World Athletics Continental Tour Challenger meet.

In the same meet, India's Sapna Kumari finished fourth in the heats of the women's 100m hurdles event but didn't start in the final.

Meanwhile, Mohammed Afsal Pulikkalakath clocked a time of 48.43s to win a bronze medal in the men's 400m event at the Tilburg meet. The 27-year-old has a personal best of 48.22, which he clocked in Thenhipalam, Kerala in 2022.

In the 100m event, Amlan Borgohain ran the heat in 10.55s to finish fourth but didn't line up for the final.

On Sunday, India's Selva Prabhu Thirumaran bagged the gold medal in the men's triple jump event at the Venizelia-Chania International 2023 athletics meet in Greece and in the process, recorded his personal best and also overhauled the junior national record.

The 18-year-old Selva Prabhu topped the podium in the event with a leap of 16.78m. The Tamil Nadu athlete registered three legal jumps of 16.34m, 16.78m and 16.25m. However, his second jump was enough to win him a medal and break the junior national record.

Selva Prabhu had won a silver medal in the World Athletics U20 Championships with a jump of 16.15m in Colombia last year.

Julian Konle of Australia finished second with a jump of 16.60m while local athlete Dimítrios Tsiamis claimed third place with a 16.33m effort.

In the men's long jump event at the World Athletics Continental Tour Bronze meet, India's Jeswin Aldrin finished overall fifth with a best jump of 7.66m.

The 21-year-old Jeswin Aldrin holds the men's long jump national record courtesy of an 8.42m leap at the National Open Jumps competition in Bellary earlier this year.

The gold medal went to Jalen Rucker of Australia, who produced a jump of 7.86m. France's Jules Pommery (7.84m) and Nikolaos Stamatonikolos (7.81m) of Greece bagged the silver and bronze medals, respectively.