When most women athletes in the 400-metre run start tiring and slightly slow down in the last 50 metres Jyothika Sri Dandi of India does the opposite.
“This unique and natural gift of the last stretch burst of speed from Jyothika Sri should give the crucial advantage to the Indian women’s 4x400m relay squad to put up a good show at the Paris Olympics,” feels her coach and Dronacharya awardee N Ramesh.
This rare quality of Jyothika proved to be a clincher when the Indian relay team clocked 3:29.35 to finish second behind the Jamaican quartet’s 3:38.54 in the Bahamas World Athletics Relays in May to qualify for the Paris Olympics 2024. Jyothika Sri ran the final lap.
On August 9, the Indian relay team of Rupal Chaudhary, M R Poovamma, Subha Venkatesan, and Jyothika Sri will run the semi-final race and hope to make the final grade and clinch a dream medal too.
The 24-year-old athlete from Tanuku in Andhra Pradesh has a good height, a strong physique, and the determination to bring laurels to the country and her father, D Srinivasa Rao, a sportsman himself.
It was a great moment for Rao, a bodybuilder now turned small businessman when Jyothika Sri and the Indian relay squad qualified for the Paris Olympics. He has invested full-time attention, effort, and confidence in promoting his daughter’s career.
Srinivasa Rao is the first parent I have come across who was willing to forgo the job offer from the Railways for his daughter’s athletic career. “We had to convince him that job security was also important for Jyothika and that it would not impact her training”, says Ramesh.
Jyothika Sri is employed with the South Central Railway (SCR) and is also pursuing her degree from the SRM University in Amaravati,
Srinivasa Rao, whose ambitions of making it big in bodybuilding were cut short due to financial constraints, is not sparing any effort to support his daughter. “What I could not achieve I hope to realise through the successes of my daughter at least,” he says.
Jyothika’s career showed promise when she was selected for the 2016 World School Games 400m event in Turkey. But, the rise started when she came under the tutorship of Vinay Prasad in Eluru during 2016-20.
The big turning point in her career proved to be the shift to Hyderabad in 2020 and joining the training at the Gachibowli stadium under the Sports Authority of India. Here, she came under the coaching of Ramesh. Jyothika quickly caught national attention. She won the gold in the 400m race in the National under-23 meet in Delhi in 2022 with a timing of 53.05. The Athletics Federation got her to join the Indian camp for relay runners.
Enroute to her growing career graph Jyothika received financial support initially from the Gopichand-Mytrah Foundation, and later from the Eenadu-Lakshya Foundation which continues to provide her a monthly stipend of Rs 15,000. A senior defence scientist Y Srinivasa Rao and Ramesh have been instrumental in sustaining training, mentoring, and organising financial support to Jyothika.
Disappointment & hope
Jyothika’s father Srinivasa Rao had to face several disappointments. First, his bodybuilding career could not go beyond the district level due to financial constraints. He nursed a desire to produce a ‘Mr India’ in bodybuilding if he had a son. But, he ended up with two daughters.
However, he saw hope in Jyothika, the second daughter, when she participated in a Rotary Club-organised race at the age of 13 along with her classmate from Tanuku Montessori School. “Though she finished 5th in the 100m race, I saw potential in her stride and strength,” he recalled.
In 2015, she won her first medal, a bronze in the 1000m, inter-district tournament for under 16. It helped in getting selected for the School Games Federation (SGF) event in Kerala in 2016. In the under-17, Jyothika won a silver medal in the 400 m race. The SGF took her to the World School Games in Turkey in 2016. She was in Class X and during this period her coach was the Physical Education Teacher, Sitaramaiah.
Thereafter, she moved to Vijayawada and joined the Sidhartha Mahila Vidyalaya. Here, she found her footing with coach Vinay Prasad honing her talent. She emerged as the national champion in 400m, under 18 in 2017. In quick succession, she represented India at the Asian Athletics Championships, in Bangkok and the World Athletics Championships in Kenya in 2017.
The fast rise and improving performances of his second daughter gave a lot of hope for Srinivasa Rao. He put his full effort into supporting her financially and emotionally. In 2020, as COVID-19 started easing, she moved to Hyderabad.
However, a big disappointment for Jyothika was missing the Asian Games in Hangzhou, China in 2022 due to a hamstring injury.
Jyothika is determined to make up for the miss and give her best in Paris. An impressive feature of the athlete is her total commitment. “She does not miss a single training session and always gives her best,” says Ramesh, the SAI Athletics coach.
The Indian women’s relay squad has been camping in Jamaica for one month. They have been going through rigorous training and are upbeat to give their best performance.
Back in Tanuku, her family and friends, especially the father, are eagerly awaiting 1410 hrs on Friday to see Jyothika Sri excel and make everyone proud.
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