There she was all alone sitting on a chair watching the training session intently, clearly a forlorn figure.

Ray-Donna Lee could not be with her Hydel High teammates in the session as she is recovering from injury.

The promising sprint hurdler will miss this year’s ISSA Boys’ and Girls’ Athletics Championships following a knee surgery done last November, and it has left her despondent, to say the least.

Having played her part over the years in putting Hydel High on the athletics map, the 19-year-old was hoping to finish her Champs career on a high and assisting her school as they hunt their first title.

“I am feeling very depressed most times, but I strongly believe that everything happens for a reason,” Lee told the Jamaica Observer recently on a visit to the St Catherine-based school.

“It’s not an easy thing to deal with because sitting here and watching everybody else train doesn’t feel good at all. But I still have hope that everything will work out,” said Lee.

Having repaired her ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) Lee has at least four months before she can compete again and is eager to get back on track.

Lee, who was a part of Jamaica’s 2018 Carifta Games gold medal-winning 4x100m relay team, has a personal best of 11.5 for the 100m and 12.95 the 100m hurdles.

“I am hoping to continue hurdles and 100m, so after injury I want to get back to the hurdles because it’s my favourite event,” she noted.

At Champs 2018, Lee won the 100m hurdles in Class Two in a then record 12.95 and was second in the 100m in 11.58. That hurdles record now sits with Ackera Nugent of Excelsior High, who lowered it in 2019 to 12.91.

With a niggling injury, Lee finished seventh in the 100m in 11.98 won by her teammate Ashanti Moore in a splendid 11.17. They later teamed up and struck gold in the 4×100 relay.

But it’s not all about play and no work. Lee has been doing extremely well at school in balancing athletics and academics. She has 13 CSEC subjects, and despite the injury setback, has offers from two American universities, Clemson and Baylor.

“I would like to have a major in economics; I like business,” she quipped.

But although WHite’s favourite event is the sprint hurdles, her athletics idol is two-time 100m Olympic champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce,

“She is a very hard worker and tries very hard because she had difficulties back in high school and now she is very successful. So I relate to her as what the end result can be,” Lee pointed out.

“This [injury] is a setback so after fully recovering, I will put in twice the amount of hard work and I will see the result,” Lee added.

— Howard Walker