Jilna, a mother of an 18-month-old daughter, returns to fast lane, wins silver in 100 metres

In the last eight months, sprinter Jilna VM who finished second behind India’s fastest runner Dutee Chand in 100m at the Fed Cup on Sunday, has met her 18-month-old daughter just once. The 24-year-old Kerala athlete has been training in Kollam, about seven hours road from her in-law’s house in Palakkad where her child and father stay. Despite it being just an overnight journey, Jilna refrains from visiting home as it would disrupt her training.
“Since I am away for so long that during one of our calls she called me chechi (elder ser) instead of mother. It hurt. It feels terrible that I can’t be with my own ba but if I go for even one day, my training pattern will derail. I have worked really hard to get back in shape after childbirth. I am doing sports for my passion and family so this is a cross I will have to bear,” says Jilna, who is competing in her first competition post her daughter’s birth.
At the 100m event, she finished behind national record holder Dutee Chand (11.49 seconds) with a personal best timing of 11.63s to take home the silver medal. She will be competing in the 200m heats today in the same group as star runner Priya Mohan.

Starting athletics in middle school, her long-standing dream of making it to the national camp was fulfilled in 2019. “I was in excellent shape and was ready to progress to the next level,” she said. But little did she know that her life would change. During a regular medical checkup, Jilna and her husband Moorthy found out that she was expecting.
“We didn’t know I was pregnant and it wasn’t planned. I was so confused and worried because I wasn’t prepared to have a child at this stage of my career. I discussed it with my husband and we decided to become parents,” recalled the Kerala athlete.
During pregnancy and childbirth, Jilna lost eight kilograms and became extremely frail. “I was like a stick,” she says. The break from sports also weakened her core muscles. The Seema Suraksha Bal (SSB) constable knew that regaining form would be an uphill task.
“After a few months post-child-birth, I returned to the ground for a light drill at my SSB centre. I could not even lift my knees to do basic marching. It was testing times for me,” she says.
But during her trials, her husband Moorthy, a former footballer, stood her like a rock. Jilna and Moorthy met when they were in high school and got married just two years back. Moorthy now works as a lecturer at a Polytechnic College in Palakkad. “Without my husband, my return to sport would never have been possible. He has backed me to the hilt. My mother is no more but my mother-in-law treats me like her own child. Both my husband and his mother are the biggest pillars in my life,” she says.
Since this was a comeback competition, Jilna is just testing the waters. But in the upcoming Inter-State Meet, she will target the qualification standards set AFI for the Asian and Commonwealth Games. Jilna will have to vastly improve her time as the qualifying standard set the Athletics Federation of India for the Commonwealth Games is 11.31 second and for the Asian Games it is 11.36 seconds.
“I have found my rhythm now. I ran my personal best yesterday but there is still a lot to improve,” she says. After the Fed Cup Jilna can afford a short break where she will visit her daughter briefly before heading back to Kollam to train for the next meet. “Whenever someone asks my daughter where I am, she points to a photo of mine which is a wallpaper on my husband’s phone. I can’t wait to go home and see her,” she says.
Jyothi unlucky again

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Jyoti Yarraji clocked a wind-assed 13.09s in the 100m hurdles. Her timing was better than the previous national record of 13.38s. Since she had a wind assance of +2.1m/s, it won’t be ratified.
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Jyothi Yarraji, clocked a faster time than the 16-year-old meet record during the 100m hurdles heats. Her 13.09s was way faster than the two-decade-old national mark of 13.38m. But since her run was wind-assed it won’t be ratified. This is the second time the Andhra Pradesh runner has clocked better timings than the national record. In January 2020, she clocked 13.03s in the All India University Games but the timings were not ratified because the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) wasn’t at the event. “I don’t know how to take it. I will just try again,” said the dejected hurdler after the competition.