Jyothi Yaaraji won gold in the Asian Athletic Championship is wrongly shared as in the ongoing Asian Games

Claim

Rating

Explanation

In the viral post shared by the former cricketer Gautam Gambir with a picture of the athlete Jyothi Yarraji, he said ‘This gold medal is a true testament that dreams come true irrespective of circumstances.’ He also congratulated to girl saying ‘Way to go Jyothi Yaraaji.’ In the image, we can see a girl named Yarraji holding the Indian flag and standing with all smiles for the camera. This same post was also shared by many social media users with similar claims can be seen here and here.

There is also a video post shared by the user ‘Aviator Anil Chopra’ with the same claim stating “Begin the Day with GOOD NEWS. India’s first Women’s Gold medal at the Asian Athletics Championship in 100mtr hurdles. Great show.” In the 2-minute 20-second video we were able to see that Jyotji Yaaraji won first place with a timing of 13.09 in the women’s 100-meter hurdles in the final round. Come, let’s check the authenticity of this viral claim.

Begin the Day with GOOD NEWS……… India’s first Women’s Gold medal at Asian Athletics Championship in 100mtr hurdles…. Great show!!!! pic.twitter.com/Wlndrd9vmO

— Aviator Anil Chopra (@Chopsyturvey) September 25, 2023

What’s the truth ?

Jyothi Yarraji is an Indian track and field athlete who specializes in 100-metre hurdles. She was born in 1999, in Vizag, Andhra Pradesh, Yarraji is a national record holder in the women’s 100 m hurdle category after breaking the long-standing record by Anuradha Biswal when she ran 13.23s on 10 May 2022.

When we started our research we found that the Asian Athletics Championships was held in Bangkok, Thailand from 12-16 July 2023. The video shared by the social media user is not from the upcoming Asian Games in Hangzhou, China which will commence on 29 September 2023. Yarraji will in fact be in action at the Asian Games in Hangzhou later this month as she will be competing in the 100m hurdles and the 200m event. This proves that the viral claim is false and it’s not from the Asian Games, China rather it was from the Asian Athletics Championships, Thailand.

When we searched further, we got into the official website of the Asian Athletics Championships where we found the list of participants and winners with their scores and rankings.

The above list clearly proves that the game was held in Thailand and not in China. Moreover it’s the Asian Athletics Championships game and not Asian Games. The former competition is already over in July and this Asian games are yet to be started. Also, the Asian Athletics Championships game was a was a five day event held at July which included sports related only to athletics such as hurdle races, long jump, javelin throw, shot put, and relays. On the other hand, the Asian Games, are two weeks long events that include both athletics as well as other sports such as swimming, archery, shooting, basketball, cricket, and many more.

We also searched the official website of the Asian Games to see when the athletics games will commence and came to know that they are starting on 29 September. To be precise, the women’s 100-m hurdles is starting on 1 October 2023.

We also did a comparison of the logos of the both games and shared for your reference below.

This clearly proves that the above viral video is from the Asian Athletics Championship game held at Thailand since you can see the above logo at the top left and not from the upcoming Asian Games happening at China.

Conclusion:

Therefore, we conclude through our investiagtion that the viral post shared by the former cricketer Gautam Gambir is old and from the games held at July and not the recent ongoing Asian Games. Moreover, Yaaraji’s competition is schelduled on 1 October and we all wish her the best for all the games.