| Personal information | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nationality | Indian | ||||||||||||||
| Born | 16 August 2001 North Delhi, India | ||||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||||
| Country | India | ||||||||||||||
| Sport | Athletics | ||||||||||||||
| Event(s) | Middle-distance running | ||||||||||||||
Medal record
| |||||||||||||||
| Updated on June 2023. | |||||||||||||||
Kumari Chanda (16 August 2001) is an Indian middle-distance runner. She won a silver medal at the 2023 Asian Athletics Championships women's 800 metres. [1]
In 2019, Chanda set a national record in the 1,500m race (4:17.19) and won gold in the 3000m event at the 35th Junior National Athletics Championship held in Andhra Pradesh. [2] She won the gold medal in the 800m race at the National School Athletics Competition in Punjab in December 2019 by finishing the 800 meters in 2 minutes and 9 seconds. [3] At the 2021 Federation Cup Senior Athletics Championships, which were held in Delhi in March, Chanda won a gold medal. [4] In the 2022 Federation Cup held at Kozhikode, she won the 800 meters race and finished third in 1500 meters. The same year, she won the gold medal in the 800m and 1500m race at the 36th National Games held in Gujarat. By finishing the 800 meters at a time of 2:01.58, she set a new national record. [5] With a time of 2.01.58, Chanda won the silver medal for 800 meters at the 2023 Asian Athletics Championships, held in Bangkok. [6]
Chanda hails from Alipur village in North Delhi.
Diane Dolores Modahl is an English former middle distance runner who specialised in the 800 metres. She won Gold in the 800 m title at the 1990 Commonwealth Games, Silver at the 1986 Commonwealth Games, and Bronze at the 1998 Commonwealth Games.
Shiny Kurisingal Wilson is a retired Indian athlete. She has been a National Champion in 800 metres for 14 years. Shiny Abraham Wilson represented India more than 75 times in international competition. She holds the added distinction of representing Asia in four World Cups. She is also perhaps the only athlete to have taken part in six Asian Track & Field Meets in a row beginning 1985 in Jakarta. During this period she won seven gold, five silver and two bronze medals in the Asian competitions. She collected a total of 18 gold and two silver medals from the seven South Asian Federation (SAF) Meets she has competed.
Honorary Captain Sriram Singh Shekhawat is a former Indian middle-distance runner.
Santhi Soundarajan is a track and field athlete from Tamil Nadu, India. She is the winner of 12 international medals for India and around 50 medals for her home state of Tamil Nadu. Shanthi Soundarajan is the first Tamil woman to win a medal at the Asian Games. She competes in middle distance track events. She was stripped of a silver medal won at the 2006 Asian Games after failing a sex verification test which disputed her eligibility to participate in the women's competition.
Preeja Sreedharan is an Indian long-distance runner. She holds the national records in both the 10,000 metres and 5000 metres disciplines, which she set en route to the gold and silver medals at 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games. Sreedharan was conferred with the Arjuna Award, India's second highest sporting honour by the central government in 2011.
Syed Meesaq Rizvi was a Pakistani sprinter and middle-distance runner who represented the country at two Summer Olympic Games, in Los Angeles in 1984 and in Seoul in 1988, without winning any medals.
Haley Danita Anderson is an American competitive swimmer who is an Olympic silver medalist. She placed second in the 10-kilometer open water event at the 2012 Summer Olympics.
Mokgadi Caster Semenya OIB is a South African middle-distance runner and winner of two Olympic gold medals and three World Championships in the women's 800 metres. She first won gold at the World Championships in 2009 and went on to win at the 2016 Olympics and the 2017 World Championships, where she also won a bronze medal in the 1500 metres. After the doping disqualification of Mariya Savinova, she was also awarded gold medals for the 2011 World Championships and the 2012 Olympics.
Sini A Markose is an Indian middle distance runner born in Pampakuda, Ernakulam district of Kerala state, who had won 39 international medals and participated in three Asian Games in her athletic career so far.
Tintu Luka is an Indian track and field athlete, who predominantly competes in the middle-distance running events. Born in Valathode, Kerala, she is the national record holder in the women's 800 metres. Luka represented India at the 2012 and 2016 Summer Olympics. In addition to being the 2015 Asian Champion in the 800 meters, she has won a total of six medals at the Asian Athletics Championships.
In India, the sport of athletics was introduced during the period of the British Raj. The sport is governed at national level by the Athletics Federation of India, which was formed in 1946. Despite its large population, few Indian athletes have won a medal in a global or major championship. This began to change in the 21st century, when Indians started taking greater interest in athletics more generally and improved facilities for the sport began to be built at a local level. At a continental level, it has been among the more successful Asian nations, though some distance behind China and Japan.
Francine Niyonsaba is a Burundian runner who specialized in the 800 metres and shifted to longer distances in 2019. She was the 2016 Rio Olympics silver medalist in the women's 800 metres. Her silver medal was the first Olympic medal for Burundi since 1996. Niyonsaba won a silver in the event at the 2017 World Championships.
Brenda Martinez is an American middle-distance runner and Olympian. Born in Upland, California, she won a silver medal in the 800 meters at the 2013 IAAF World Championships in Moscow and finished first in the 800 meters at the 2014 Diamond League Final. She represented the US at the 2012 IAAF World Indoor Championships in the 1500 meters. Martinez twice set the world record in the Distance Medley Relay at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix in Boston; first on February 7, 2015 and then breaking her own record on January 28, 2017. In 2016, Martinez qualified for the U.S. Olympic team competing in the 1500 meters after beating Amanda Eccleston by 0.03 seconds.
Ciara Mageean is a middle-distance runner from Portaferry in Northern Ireland who specialises in the 1500 metres. She is a three-time European Athletics Championship medallist at the event, with bronze in 2016 and silver in 2022 outdoors, and bronze in 2019 indoors. Mageean also won silver at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
Naib Subedar Jinson Johnson is an Indian middle-distance runner and an Indian Army Junior Commissioned Officer (JCO) who specialises in the 800 and 1500 metres event. He participated in the 800 metres event at the 2016 Summer Olympics. In 2018 Commonwealth Games he finished fifth setting a new national record in the 1500 metres race by breaking 23 year old record of Bahadur Prasad. Later in 2018, he went on to win the gold medal in the men's 1500m at the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta, Indonesia with a timing of 3:44.72 in the final event, as well as a silver medal in 800 metres.
Nimali Waliwarsha Konda Liyanarachchi is a Sri Lankan 800 m runner and current national record holder in women's 1500m event. She is also believed to be the first Sri Lankan woman to have competed in steeplechase events. She became the first Sri Lankan woman to complete the distance of 3000 metres in steeplechase event under 11 minutes. She won the best athlete award twice at the Presidential award ceremonies by the Sports Ministry including the Most Outstanding Sportswoman of the Year in 2015. She is currently attached to Sri Lanka Air Force.
Athing Mu is an American middle-distance runner. She is the youngest woman in history to hold Olympic and world titles in an individual track and field event. At the age of 19, Mu won the gold medal in the 800 meters at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, breaking a national record set by Ajeé Wilson in 2017, and a continental under-20 record. She took a second gold as part of the women's 4 × 400 m relay. She was the 800 m 2022 World champion, becoming the first American woman to win the world championship title over the distance.
Keely Nicole Hodgkinson is an English professional middle-distance runner specialising in the 800 metres. At the age of 19, she won the silver medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, breaking the British record set by Kelly Holmes in 1995. She is the 2022 and 2023 World Championships and 2022 Commonwealth Games silver medallist, 2022 European champion and a two-time European indoor champion from 2021 and 2023, with her 2021 title secured as the youngest ever European women's indoor 800 m winner.
Mohamed Ali Gouaned is an Algerian middle-distance runner specializing in the 400 meters and 800 meters. He holds the Junior World best in 600 meters with a time of 1:14:79 set in Algiers on 26 March 2021 breaking the record held by Wilfred Bungei since 1 September 1999 with a time of 1:14:94.
Roisin Willis is an American middle-distance runner. She won the gold medal in the 800 meters at the 2022 World Under-20 Championships, adding second title for the women's 4x400 m relay.
