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Personal information | |
---|---|
Nationality | Indian |
Born | Gonikoppal, Karnataka, India[1] | 5 June 1990
Height | 173 cm (5 ft 8 in)[1] |
Weight | 60 kg (132 lb)[1] |
Sport | |
Country | India |
Sport | Athletics |
Event | 200–800 m |
Club | Oil and Natural Gas Corporation[1] |
Coached by | Nagapuri Ramesh[1] |
Achievements and titles | |
Personal best(s) | 200 m – 24.31 (2018) 400 m – 51.73 (2014) 800 m – 2:09.24 (2017)[2] |
Medal record | |
Updated on 21 April 2019 |
Machettira Raju Poovamma (born 5 June 1990) is an Indian sprinter who specialises in the 400 metres distance.[3] As a member of the Indian 4 × 400 m relay teams she participated in the 2016 Olympics and won gold medals at the 2014 and 2018 Asian Games and 2013 and 2017 Asian championships; individually she won a silver medal in 2013 and a bronze in 2014 at those competitions. She received the Arjuna Award in 2015 for her contributions to athletics.[4]
Poovamma was born to M. G. Raju and Jaji. She completed her primary and higher education in Mangalore[5] and acquired her bachelor's degree in business management from the Sri Dharmasthala Manjunatheshwara College of Business Management, Karnataka.[6] Her brother MR Manju also competed in the 400 m events at the national level.[1][7]
Poovamma won a silver medal in the 400 m and a gold in the 4 × 400 m relay at the 2008 Commonwealth Youth Games. She then won a senior national 400 m title in September 2011 in Kolkata. At the 2012 Asian Grands Prix Poovamma won two gold and a silver medal.[8] She also won a gold medal at the 2013 Asian Grand Prix in Bangkok. Poovamma represented India in the Moscow World Athletics Championships 2013[9] where she was also a part of the women's 4 × 400 m relay team.
She won the gold medal in women's 4 × 400 metres relay at the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea along with Tintu Luka, Mandeep Kaur and Priyanka Pawar.[10][11] The team clocked 3:28:68 to break the Games Record. This is India's 4th consecutive gold in the event since 2002.
In 2017 she was part of the winning 4 × 400 m team at the 2017 Asian Athletics Championships in Bhubaneshwar, which also included Debashree Mazumdar, Jisna Mathew and Nirmala Sheoran. The team had a problematic baton exchange, but Nirmala recovered the time in the final leg.[12]