Udupi sportswomen win gold for India

Udupi sportswomen win gold for India

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangalore, November 27: The women athletes of Udupi won 2 gold medals on Friday, which makes a total of 3 gold medals for India in the Asian Games, which are being held in Guangzhou in China. Vasanthkumar, the DK District Sports School Athletics coach, said that this is the first time athletes from Karnataka have won gold for India in the Asian Games.

Ashwini Akkunji

Mamatha Poojary

 

A. C. Ashwini won her first gold medal in the 400m hurdles on Thursday and another one on Friday for the Indian 4x400m relay squad. Mamatha Poojary of Hermunde near Karkala won the gold medal for the Indian Women’s Kabbadi team. Tejaswini V. Bai, another member of this team, is also from Karnataka.

Ashwini’s father B. R. Chidananda Shetty told reporters that his daughter wanted to participate in the London Olympics. She informed her family on Thursday that she will bring her 400m hurdles timing down to 53 seconds; and on Thursday, she brought it down to 56.15 seconds.

Both Mamatha and Ashwini were raised in humble circumstances and reached the heights through sheer determination and hard work. Mamatha is also from Hermunde near Karkala. Her father, who owns a garage in Karkala, informed reporters that Mamatha works at Central Railways in Secundarabad. She studied in Hermunde Primary School and then at Jyothi High School in Ajekar and finally at Government Junior College at Muniyal. She got her BA degree at Gokarnanatheshwara College in Mangalore.

Her father also said that Mamatha was initially a volleyball player, who was later encouraged by her coach Ramesh Suvarna to practice Kabbadi when she was studying at Government Junior College in Muniyal. She also received the encouragement of Ramakrishna Hegde, the physical director at Government Junior College, Muniyal, and Purushottam, the physical director at Gokarnanatheshwara College. Ever since, she focused on Kabbadi and attended a number of sports camps.

The humble village of Hermunde celebrated as soon as it got news that the Kabaddi team had won. People distributed sweets and burst crackers. In Jansale, Ashwin’s parents were honoured with a garland, a shawl, and fruits. The villagers want to celebrate Ashwin’s second gold medal by bursting crackers, but the shops had already sold out all the firecrackers they had.