Nationality Indian Name M. Poovamma Country India Height 1.75 m | Sport Track and field Weight 59 kg Coached by N. Ramesh Events Sprint | |
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Born 5 June 1990 (age 33) ( 1990-06-05 ) Gonikoppal, Kodagu, Karnataka, India Personal best(s) 400 m: 51.75 (Lucknow 2013) Club Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Awards Arjuna Award for Athletics | ||
M R Poovamma
Machettira Raju Poovamma (born 5 June 1990) is an Indian sprinter who competes in the 400 metres event. She participated in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. She was conferred the Arjuna Award in 2015 for her contributions in the field of athletics.
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Early life
Poovamma was born on 5 June 1990, to M. G. Raju and Jaji. She completed her primary and higher education in Mangalore and acquired her bachelor's degree in business management from SDM College of Business Management, Mangalore.
Career Highlights
Poovamma is a Beijing Olympics 2008 participant and is currently ranked No.2 in Asia in the 400 m category. She won Silver in the 400m event at the 2008 Youth Commonwealth Games and Gold in the 4x400m category at the same event. Her form continued to pick up when she stood first at the Open Nationals in September 2011 in Kolkata. Poovamma also did extremely well in 2012 in all the three Asian Grands Prix which were held in Bangkok by securing two Golds and a Silver. She also won a gold medal at the 2013 Asian Grand Prix in Bangkok. She set her fastest timing of 52.75s and came 1st at the Federations Cup in Patiala, India in 2013. Poovamma represented India in the Moscow World Athletics Championships 2013 where she was also a part of the women’s 4x400m relay team.
She won the gold medal in women's 4 x 400 metres relay at the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea along with Tintu Luka, Mandeep Kaur and Priyanka Pawar. 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 4x400m team who took gold at the 2017 Asian Athletics Championships in Bhubaneshwar. The team was Poovamma, Debashree Mazumdar, Jisna Mathew and Nirmala Sheoran. There was a tricky baton exchange but Poovamma recovered the time on the final leg.