Anju Bobby George is a retired Indian athlete. Anju Bobby George made history when she won the bronze medal in long jump at the 2003 World Championships in Athletics in Paris. With this achievement, she became the first Indian athlete ever to win a medal in a World Championships in Athletics jumping 6.70 metres (22.0 ft). She went on to win the gold medal at the IAAF World Athletics Final in 2005, a performance she considers her best. Anju was upgraded to the gold status from silver in the 2005 World Athletics Final in Monte Carlo following the disqualification of Tatyana Kotova of Russia by the International Association of Athletics Federations, following the recent re-testing of the latter's sample collected at the 2005 World Championship in Helsinki. She was awarded the Arjuna Award in 2002, Khel Ratna in 2003 and Padma Shri in 2004. She had got 5th position with personal best of 6.83 metres (22.4 ft) at the 2004 Athens Olympics. In March 2021, Anju won the BBC lifetime achievement award for best athlete in India. She is also the current vice-president of the Athletics Federation of India.
Kalayathumkuzhi Mathews Beenamol, popularly known as K. M. Beenamol, from Kombidinjal, Idukki district, Kerala is an international athlete from India.
Arati Saha was an Indian long-distance swimmer. She was best known for becoming the first Asian woman to swim across the English Channel on 29 September 1959 when she was nineteen years old. In 1960, she became the first Indian sportswoman to be awarded the Padma Shri, the fourth-highest civilian honour in India.
Pilavullakandi Thekkeparambil Usha is a retired Indian track and field athlete. She was born in Koothali near Perambra in Kozhikode district,Kerala.She grew up in Payyoli. She has been associated with Indian athletics since 1979. She has won 4 Asian gold medals and 7 Silver medals. She is often associated as the "Queen of Indian track and field". On 6 July 2022, she was nominated to the Rajya Sabha by former President Ram Nath Kovind. In December 2022, Usha has been elected president of the Indian Olympic Association unopposed. In Dec 2022, PT Usha has been appointed to the panel of Rajyasabha vice chairman to control the proceedings of the upper house during the absence of both Chairman and Deputy Chairman.She is the first nominated MP in history to become the Vice Chairperson of Rajyasabha
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.
Neelam Jaswant Singh is an Indian discus thrower.
Sunita Rani is an Indian athlete from Punjab who won a gold medal in the 1,500 m race and a bronze in the 5,000 m during the 2002 Asian Games. Her time of 4:06.03 in the 1,500 metres is the current Indian national record. She received the Arjuna award in 1999 and the Padma Shri in 2015 for her achievements. She later raised controversy when she was charged with doping. Her medals were revoked but subsequently reinstated after an investigation.
Mercy Kuttan is a former Indian track and field athlete. She was the first Indian woman long jumper to cross six meters. In 1989, Mercy received Arjuna Award for her contribution to the Indian athletics.
Kalayathumkuzhi Mathews Binu is an Indian track and field athlete from Kerala who specializes in 400 metres and 800 metres. He held the current 400 metres national record of 45.48 s set at the 2004 Athens Olympics on 20 August 2004 which was later broken by Mohammad Anas 45.32 sec in Commonwealth games, Gold coast 2018 sec. He broke the 44-year-old Olympics mark held by Milkha Singh who set an Indian National Record with a timing of 45.73 s at the 1960 Rome Olympics. He and his elder sister K. M. Beenamol made history when they became the first Indian siblings to win medals in a major international competition. They won medals at the Busan Asian Games (2002). While Binu won the men's 800 metres silver, his sister won the gold medal in the women's event. Binu received the Arjuna Award for the year 2006 for his achievements in the Indian athletics.
Bahadur Prasad Singh is a former Indian middle distance runner. He holds the current national records in 5000 metres. Singh set the 5000 m record (13:29.70) in Birmingham, UK on 27 June 1992. Then on 23 December 1995, Prasad clocked a time of 3:38.00 at the 1995 South Asian Games in Chennai to set the 1500 m national record, which stood for 23 years.
Rachita Mistry née Panda is an Indian professional sprinter from Odisha. She held the 100 metres national record of 11.38 seconds set at the National Circuit Athletic Meet held in Thiruvananthapuram on 12 August 2000 for 13 years until it was bettered in 2013 by Merlin K. Joseph. Rachita set her personal best time of 11.26 s for 100 metres in Bangalore on 5 July 2001 and in the process she broke P. T. Usha's long standing mark of 11.39 s set during the 1985 Asian Championships in Athletics in Jakarta. However, following some controversies, the Amateur Athletic Federation of India (AAFI) did not ratify the national record on the ground that no dope tests had been carried out during the meet. AAIF, however, clarified that the performances of the athletes who set the National record during the 2000 National Circuit Meet would be allowed to stand as their personal bests.
Manjeet Kaur is an Indian sprint athlete from Punjab who specializes in 400 metres. She held the 400 m National record of 51.05 seconds set at the National Circuit Athletic Meet held in Chennai on 16 June 2004. She broke the previous record held by K. M. Beenamol since November 2001. In doing so, she passed the qualifying mark for the 2004 Athens Olympics. She along with Chitra K. Soman, Rajwinder Kaur and K. M. Beenamol form the team that holds the current National record in 4 x 400 metres relay.
Anuradha Biswal is an Indian former track and field athlete from Odisha who specialized in 100 metre hurdles. She previously held the national record of 13.38 seconds for 100 m hurdles, set on 26 August 2002 during the DDA-Raja Bhalendra Singh National Circuit meet held at the Nehru Stadium in Delhi. She bettered her own record of 13.40 seconds clocked at the Asian championships in Jakarta on 30 July 2000. She held the record until Jyothi Yarraji ran 13.23s on 10 May 2022. She won a bronze medal for her performance in Jakarta. She is working with NALCO in Bhubaneswar, Odisha.
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.
Dutee Chand is an Indian professional sprinter and current national champion in the women's 100 metres event. She is the first Indian to win a gold medal in 100m race in a global competition. She is the third Indian woman to ever qualify for the Women's 100 metres event at the Summer Olympic Games. However, in the 2016 Summer Olympics, her 11.69 s in the preliminary round did not qualify her for the next round. In 2018, Chand clinched silver in women's 100m at the Jakarta Asian Games. It was India's first medal in this event since 1998. In 2019, she became the first Indian sprinter to win gold at the Universiade, clocking 11.32 seconds in the 100 m race.
Suma Shirur is a former Indian shooter who competed in the 10 metre air rifle event. She is a joint world record holder in the event, having scored the maximum of 400 points in the qualification round, which she achieved at the 2004 Asian Shooting Championships in Kuala Lumpur. In 2003, she was awarded the Arjuna Award by the government of India. She is currently the High Performance Coach of the Indian Jr. Rifle Shooting Team. She is also the coach of 2020 Paralympics women's SH1 10m rifle gold and women's SH1 50m 3-position rifle bronze medalist Avani Lekhara On 30 November of 2022, she was conferred the Dronacharya Award by the 15th President of India, Droupadi Murmu.
Asha Roy is an Indian professional sprinter who won the silver medal for 200m in the Asian Track and Field at the 20th Asian Athletics Championships in Pune on 7 July 2013. Roy clocked 11.85 seconds in a 100-meter dash at the 51st National Open Athletics Championships, held at the Yuva Bharti Krirangan, Kolkata in 2011. Roy's record was just short of the national record of 11.38 seconds, which was set by Rachita Mistry in Thiruvananthapuram in 2000. Roy also ran the fastest 200-meter dash, clocking the tape at 24.36 seconds and anchored Bengal's 4 × 100 m relay team, which won the silver with a timing of 47.49 seconds at the Championships.
Valdivel Jayalakshmi is an Indian sprinter. She represented India in 4 x 100 metres relay together with P. T. Usha, Rachita Mistry, and E.B. Shyla at the 1998 Asian Championships in Athletics, where her team won the gold medal on the way to setting the current national record of 44.43 s.
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