LUCKNOW, Sept. 2 -- Bad luck stood in the way of ace Uttar Pradesh sprinter Rupal Chaudhary as struck by injury, she is set to miss the World Athletics Championship. The championship is scheduled to be held from September 13 in Tokyo. Earlier, despite being selected for the 2024 Paris Olympics, she had fallen ill and had been unable to participate. After winning back-to-back golds at the 6th Indian Open 400m event at Thiruvananthapuram this March and 28th National Federation Senior Athletics Championship at Kochi in April, she was supposed to qualify for the World Championship through the Asian Athletics Championship in May in South Africa, but injury brought all her plans to a halt. Even in pain, she continued to run hard and in May, she clinched a silver medal in the 400m event at the Asian athletics Championship in Doha. "It's disappointing that I am unable to make it to the World Athletics this year. I had plans after winning back-to-back medals at the nationals, but once again injury dashed my hopes for the season at least," said Rupal on Monday, a day after the announcement of the Indian contingent for the Tokyo championship. "Everything was going good till April even though I had a little pain in my backbone. I felt it was just a casual one and would subside with time, but it continued to increase. It cropped up severely when I went to Poland for training and then I realised it was something serious," she said. "Interestingly, most doctors before that told me that there was nothing wrong with my back as it was just tightness. It caused me to workout in the gym. I had a lot of pain during training in Poland and while sleeping and sitting. So, when I came back to India and got an MRI done, I came to know that there was a little tear and a problem in the L5 disk." At the 2022 World U-20 Athletics in Cali, Colombia, Rupal bagged a silver in 400m relay event before winning an individual bronze in the 400m and those medals brought a big change to her life. Rupal, who is in rehab at the SAI Centre at Thiruvananthapuram, said that injury hasn't deterred her and after her rehab in next two months, she will be starting afresh for the Asian Games and Commonwealth Games. "I haven't lost courage and am working hard on my fitness in the rehab. For sure, I will come up with plans for the Asian Games and Commonwealth Games," said Rupal, who hails from Meerut....