Kodagu lass Unnathi breaks P.T. Usha’s record in Hurdle Race

Completes 80-metre hurdles (U-16) in 11.50 seconds at National Junior Athletics Championships

Bollanda Unnathi Aiyappa from Kodagu has created a new national record in the 80-metre hurdles held on Feb. 8 and 300-metre hurdles held on Feb. 9 at the 36th National Junior Athletics Championships at the Sarusajai Stadium in Assam.

Representing Karnataka in the Under-16 category, Unnathi Aiyappa clocked 11.50 seconds in the 80-metre hurdle and bagged the gold medal. It is a new national record. In the 300-metre hurdles too, she clocked 40.11 seconds, creating a record. She defeated Soumita Paul (West Bengal) 40.15 and Roshani Yadav (Uttar Pradesh) 40.94.

She is the daughter of former Indian heptathlete Pramila Aiyappa (from Guddanda family) and quartermiler B.P. Aiyappa. Notably, it was her father, presently a national athletic coach, trained her to achieve the feat.

In 1979, the legend P.T. Usha had created a record in Under-16 category by completing the 80-metre hurdles in 12.2 seconds and in 1985, Karnataka’s A.N. Rekha matched Usha’s record. Now Unnathi has broken this record to wind up the race in 11.50 seconds.

In the 300-metre hurdles, Unnathi clocked 40.11 seconds, thereby breaking a national record that was held by an athlete from West Bengal.

Unnathi was a constant presence at the Kanteerava Stadium in Bengaluru from a very young age, accompanying Pramila during contests and later on, as a trainee under her parents. She watched on television her mother winning the Asian Games bronze in the heptathlon at Guangzhou in 2010 but at five, was too young to understand its significance. Soon though, she too was winning medals on her own at the school level and now she has risen to national level, breaking records.