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Olympic hopeful preparing for spinal surgery

 

Olympic hopeful preparing for spinal surgery

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AOC
Olympic hopeful preparing for spinal surgery

Beijing Olympic BMX hopeful Renee Junga will undergo surgery Friday after suffering severe spinal injuries in a training accident...

Beijing Olympic BMX hopeful Renee Junga will undergo surgery Friday after suffering severe spinal injuries in a training accident in New Zealand.

The Gold Coast-based rider fractured vertebrae in her neck and experienced spinal shock when she crashed on a Four Cross course in Rotorua on Tuesday.

On Thursday the 20-year-old Queenslander underwent further scans ahead of the surgery.

She is expected to be in the operating theatre for between four and six hours as surgeons work to stabilise her injuries.

Doctors at Auckland City Hospital plan to use surgical pins, screws and rods to stabilise her spine at the T6 vertabrae and will screw together the broken C1 and C2 bones in her neck.

Doctors hope to have her sitting up by the middle of next week.

Junga, the Australian female BMX cyclist of the year, was taken by helicopter to Auckland City Hospital. The cyclist also suffered two broken ribs and a broken sternum, but was in good spirits.

A Cycling Australia spokeswoman reported on Wednesday, "She's conscious, she's alert, she's very chirpy today.

"She's really just focusing on waiting for the doctors to know what's going on."

Junga, a member of an Australian BMX high-performance program targeting the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, won a silver medal at last year's BMX world championships in France. She was in Rotorua to take part in the mountain bike world championships.

Four Cross is one of the disciplines of BMX racing, much like Snowboard Cross, in which four riders race on a downhill course with a series of turns and jumps.

After seeing others fall short on the course's first double jump yesterday, Junga pedalled harder on approach. "I took an extra couple of cranks but overshot it and missed the landing completely," she said.

The bike landed flat on both wheels, knocking her off and head first into the next jump. She had some words of advice for competitors at the championships.

"Don't put those extra cranks in on the double."

One of Australia's top male BMX riders Luke Madill broke his back in a terrible crash in practise at the Australian Championships in Adelaide in March this year.

Madill is fortunate to be recently back riding after six months of treatment.

AOC

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