Knee surgery for Ruddock

Raymond Graham, Gleaner Writer

Rising female sprint hurdler, Natasha Ruddock, had successful anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) surgery last Wednesday in the United States following an injury to her left knee.

Ruddock, who is a junior at Texas A&M University in the United States, has been one of the leading collegiate 100-metre hurdlers this season and was expected to do well at the recently concluded National NCAA Division One outdoor championships in Eugene, Oregon.

The top female sprint hurdler at her school, and the top seed in the west region with a personal best of 12.87 seconds, Ruddock was expected to win the event at the west regional meet in Austin and qualify easily for Nationals. There she was expected to clash with the likes of Virginia Tech's Queen Harrison and Kristi Catlin, along with the University of Miami's T'ierra Brown.

warming up

The former St Jago High hurdler, however, failed to move on from the west region meet, as she suffered a major setback in her warm-up.

"I was preparing for my event on the warm-up track when I ran into the hurdle and hit my right knee," said Ruddock.

Despite the pain and discomfort, she was willing to compete for her school in the event.

"I went to the start of the race, but my coach and trainer realised that I could not make it and pulled me out of the event," said a disappointed Ruddock. "I was devastated because I knew I was ready to run real fast."

She will now be out of action for over four months because of the surgery, but according to Ruddock, her connections felt that this was the right way to go.

"My coach and trainer thought that doing the surgery was the best thing for me and this will not affect me for next year as I will not start preparations until November," said Ruddock, who expects to do well both indoors and outdoors in 2011.

"It will be my final year in college, and as long as I remain injury-free I expect to do great things," concluded Ruddock.