New Delhi, June 5 -- In August 2022, Rupal Chaudhary won two medals at the World Athletics U-20 Championships. She took silver as part of the 4x400 mixed relay team where they smashed the Asian record. Then, in the women's 400 metres, she clocked a personal best of 51.85 seconds, the sixth fastest time among juniors that year. As the first Indian to win two medals at the U-20 World Championships, the teenager from Shahpur Jainpur near Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, had announced her arrival in style.

Three months later, however, the quarter miler went missing from the competitive circuit. An injury during training left her with a tear in the anterior cruciate ligament as well as the meniscus. She spent most of 2023 in rehab, longing to get back ...