Big hurdle? Yarraji suffers injury, race against time to get qualify for Worlds on

new delhi: Asian champion and national record holder 100m hurdler Jyothi Yarraji has suffered a “freak” knee injury while training a “few days back”, in a big blow to her World Championships hopes later this year.

Yarraji, also an Asian Games silver medallist, has a high chance of qualifying for the World Championships in Tokyo in September. However, the recent injury could derail those ambitions.

“Due to an unfortunate injury to my knee during training a few days back, I’ve had to put a pause on my season,” Yarraji, who holds the national record of 12.78 seconds, posted on Instagram on Wednesday.

“I’m working with my medical team to assess my options and take a decision on the way forward,” said the 25-year-old who came back this season after suffering injury after the Paris Olympics last year.

Her coach James Hillier said that the injury was “pretty bad” and they were assessing options. “Unfortunately, she picked up a freak injury to her knee in training. It’s pretty bad so we are assessing our options at the moment,” he said, without elaborating on the options.

Yarraji is yet to breach the direct qualification time of 12.73 but her 12.96 effort while winning gold in the Asian Championships in May has put her among the 16 who can make it to the Worlds.