New Delhi, Jul 14 (PTI) Jyothi Yarraji, the 25-year-old Asian champion and national record holder in the 100m hurdles, has had a successful knee surgery. This will unfortunately rule her out of the World Championships in September and effectively end her current season. Yarraji shared this development on her social media, revealing she had the procedure to repair an ACL tear on her right knee on Friday. The surgery was conducted by the esteemed Dr. Dinshaw Pardiwala.
"Hello everyone, I’m happy to share that this Friday, I successfully underwent a surgery to repair an ACL tear on my right knee with Dr. Dinshaw Pardiwala," Yarraji posted on Instagram. "The past few weeks have been tough for me, as this injury has stopped me from doing what I love the most."
An ACL tear surgery typically requires at least six months of recovery. This means Yarraji will miss the Tokyo World Championships, scheduled for September 13-21, and will only return to competition next year. Despite the setback, Yarraji remains optimistic, stating, “However, with the support of my family, friends, the teams at TOPS, media.iccsai, afiindia official and rfyouthsports coachjameshillier and all of you, I am taking this in my stride and hoping to be back very soon. The journey to a stronger version of me starts now and I’m going to put in my 100% and more to be back on track soon."
Yarraji, also an Asian Games silver medallist, had previously acknowledged a "freak" knee injury during a training session. Her coach, James Hillier, commented that the injury was "pretty bad." Prior to this setback, Yarraji had a strong chance of qualifying for the World Championships, even though she hadn't achieved the direct qualification time of 12.73 seconds.
Her impressive 12.96-second victory at the Asian Championships in May positioned her well within the world ranking quota for the World Championships. Athletes can qualify in two ways: either through direct entry by surpassing the qualification standard or via the world ranking quota. The qualification window is open until August 24.
Yarraji's recent past was not without challenges, as she had returned from a hip flexor injury during training in Finland post the 2024 Paris Olympics, which impacted her training regimen substantially. In 2025, she adjusted her technique, reverting from a seven-stride approach back to her original eight-stride method in a bid to minimize injury risks.
Despite the hurdles she has faced, Yarraji has celebrated numerous victories this year, including gold in the 100m hurdles and 200m events at the Uttarakhand National Games in February. She retained her top spot in the 100m hurdles at the Federation Cup and successfully defended her Asian Championships title. Her most recent triumph was at the Taiwan Athletics Open on June 7.
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