NEW DELHI: In a dramatic turn of events at the Asian Games in Hangzhou, Jyothi Yarraji‘s bronze medal was soon upgraded to silver in the women’s 100m hurdles event after the Athletics Federation of India lodged an official protest without wasting any time for calling out Jyothi’s false start.
The drama unfolded when China’s Yanni Wu made successive second false start to the final but to everyone’s dismay, the officials called out Jyothi for false start, prompting AFI to lodge an immediate protest.

Lashing out at the officials, legendary Indian long-jumper and AFI’s VP Anju Bobby George said it was very unusual act by them and did all the drama by reaching out to Jyothi.

“Officials wanted to make sure that Wu is running. They disturbed Jyothi, that was our concern, otherwise she could have run much better. She was in very unstable mind and suddenly the race started but still she got silver,” Anju told reporters in Hangzhou.

She also clarified the protest was lodged even before the race started.
“The rule says who is leaving the ground first will be disqualified and Jyothi was still on the ground, so they cannot say Jyothi leaves the ground. The other girl was almost one and half step ahead of her and they came to Jyothi suddenly, it’s all drama they did.
It was very unusual, all the athletes and coaches were making sound, wrong decision, what are you doing,” Anju added.