India’s sprint hurdles star Jyothi Yarraji has been forced to hit the brakes on her promising season after suffering a knee injury during training.
The 25-year-old, who holds the national record in the women’s 100m hurdles, confirmed the news on Wednesday through her social media platforms, leaving her World Championships campaign hanging in the balance.
Yarraji, widely regarded as India’s best-ever sprint hurdler, revealed that the setback occurred a few days ago during a routine training session.
“Due to an unfortunate injury to my knee during training, I’ve had to put a pause on my season,” she shared in an Instagram post.
“I’m working with my medical team to assess my options and decide the way forward. Injuries are part of an athlete’s life, just another hurdle I will overcome soon.”
Further details emerged when her coach, James Hillier, spoke to PTI, describing the injury as “pretty bad” and confirming that immediate assessments were underway.
“Unfortunately, she picked up a freak injury to her knee in training. It’s pretty serious, so we’re currently evaluating the situation,” he said.
This development is a significant blow not just for Yarraji, but for Indian athletics as well. The hurdler had been building impressive momentum in 2024, highlighted by her gold medal-winning run at the Asian Championships in Gumi earlier this year. There, in challenging rain-soaked conditions and after a delayed start, she clocked her first sub-13-second performance of the season, defending her Asian title in style.
Yarraji, who holds the national record of 12.78 seconds, has been striving to breach the World Championships automatic qualification mark of 12.73 seconds. While she hadn’t crossed that threshold yet this season, she remained within the qualifying range through her world ranking points, with the qualification window open until August 24.
The injury marks another chapter in a season peppered with both triumphs and challenges for the hurdler. Earlier setbacks included a hamstring issue in April that disrupted her overseas competition plans. She also made a tactical adjustment, reverting to an eight-stride pattern between hurdles after experimenting with seven strides in 2023.
Despite the hurdles, Yarraji’s 2024 campaign had remained strong. She claimed double gold in the 100m hurdles and 200m at the Uttarakhand National Games in February, clinched the top spot at the Federation Cup, and followed it up by successfully defending her Asian Championships crown. Her last victory came at the Taiwan Athletics Open on June 7.
