Jyothi Yarraji won silver in the women's 100m hurdles at the Hangzhou Asian Games amid high controversy and drama, after first being disqualified for a false start, and then allowed to run the race pending a post-race review.
The official announcement clearing her came about half an hour after the race ended; it also upgraded her from bronze to silver, because the Chinese athlete who finished second was disqualified and not reinstated.
The controversy erupted when China's Yanni Wu made a false start before the starting gun went off; Jyothi was second off the blocks. However, both were disqualified, leading to a lot of trackside debating and reasoning with the officials. Eventually, both runners were allowed to run the final with a caveat: the officials would decide after the race if either of them would be disqualified.
Wu finished second to win silver, while Jyothi finished third to clinch bronze. The official announcement, however, changed that, to hand Jyothi silver in her first major international event.
What was the issue?
Jyothi was in lane 5, Wu in lane 4. The athletes got into their running blocks and were set to begin the race. Before the start gun went off, Wu was off the blocks and the race was stopped.
Jyothi immediately protested and gestured towards the lane beside her to indicate Wu had made the false start. An official inquiry followed.
Adille Sumariwalla, president of the Athletics Federation of India and a vice president on the World Athletics' executive board, later told ESPN, "The Chinese girl broke the start, so Jyothi and others followed. The false start machine will show that Jyothi had also broken the start because she got off the blocks too, but she was disturbed by the Chinese runner. However, the rule is clear, only the first defaulter is disqualified. The officials should have disqualified the Chinese runner, but instead wanted to disqualify Jyothi too."
He added, "The rulebook says that you can run under protest and Jyothi did just that. The starting referee should not have allowed the Chinese runner to participate because she broken the start. The AFI filed a protest immediately. Our protest was upheld, and Jyothi's medal was upgraded to silver."
Jyothi's coach, James Hillier, concurred, "I can only assume at this stage that the false start equipment detected that Jyothi had gone as well. They tried to disqualify both athletes, but Jyothi held her ground. Since you can run under an appeal now, both of them ran the race. Common sense prevailed and the Chinese runner was later disqualified, while Jyothi's medal was upgraded."
What then?
The officials, after seeing multiple replays on the trackside screen, were sure that Wu had defaulted and showed her a red card. A red card meant she was disqualified and would not be allowed to participate in the race.
The official then showed the red card to Jyothi as well. She immediately protested against the decision and said it was Wu who had made the false start and asked why she was being penalized.
What did the officials do?
They saw the replay a few more times, with both runners also watching, but did not give a clear decision. Wu conversed with the officials, while Jyothi remained in the background, appearing angry and bemused.
What did the replays show?
The replays clearly showed that Wu had made the start and Jyothi reacted to her movement and not the other way around.
How did the race play out?
Aside the drama, it was a brilliant race. China's Wu got off the blocks really well and led the race for the first 70m, before her compatriot Yuewi Lin made a brilliant late surge to take the gold. Jyothi appeared to have run out of steam around the fifth hurdle but dug deep to finish strongly and take bronze...which was later upgraded to silver. This was Jyothi's fourth fastest run of the year and the eighth time she ran under 13 seconds in 2023.