Asian Games 2023: China’s Yanni Wu apologises Jyoti Yarraji over ‘false start controversy’

Chinese huddler Yanni Wu on Monday accepted her mistake and publicly apologized for her behavior during the 100m hurdles final on Sunday.

She took to her Webio social to apologise to India’s Jyothi Yarraji after the ‘false start controversy’. The captions read, “I’m very sorry I was disqualified for jumping the gun and failed to live up to everyone’s expectations. I let everyone down. I also apologize to the players in the same group for tonight’s race and say to everyone I’m sorry. I respect the final decision of the referee team and the rules of the game. I need to readjust my mentality, I even misjudged the Indian player Yarra next to me. I want to say (to her) I am sorry”.

What is false start controversy?

India’s star hurdler Jyoti Yarraji was among the major medal prospects of the country in the ongoing 19th edition of the Asian Games. She holds the national record in the game. However, before the start of the race, Jyoti Yarraji along with China’s Yanni Wu was disqualified by Chinese authorities for a false start.

Initially Yanni Wu, in lane 4, had a false start but to everyone’s surprise, the officials disqualified Yarraji, who was in the next lane.

Jyothi Yarraji wins Silver Medal 🥈 after the controversy of disqualification due to false start. Good run by Jyothi under the controversial circumstances 👏🏻👏🏻#IndiaAtAsianGames #AsianGames2023 #Athletic pic.twitter.com/mCA9UaEr9w

— Gaurav Gulati (@gulatiLFC) October 1, 2023

However, Jyothi Yarraji stood up for herself and appealed against the decision, and informed Chinese authorities that Yanni Wu was the real culprit.

Despite her protest, authorities allowed her to race but the results were put on hold until the review of the situation. In the end, Yarraji’s claims proved right, and she secured the Silver Medal after the final result sheet disqualified Yanni Wu.