Krishna Poonia

Krishna Poonia piloted an unparalleled feat of bagging all the medals in women’s discus at the Commonwealth Games.

Krishna Poonia, born in 1982, in Hisar District, Haryana is a national woman discus throw champion of India. She hails from Gagarwas village in Churu district in Rajasthan and represents Indian railways in national tournaments. Krishna was coached by her husband Virender Singh Poonia who works for Railways in Jaipur. She is the first Indian woman to win a gold medal in track and field events of Commonwealth games and the first Indian to win a gold medal in such events after Milkha Singh won one 52 years back.

Poonia led a historic Indian 1-2-3 by flinging the disc to 61.51m and became the country’s first woman in 52 years to win the gold on a day the Games was rocked by its first doping scandal when woman’s 100m champion gold medalist Osayemi Oludamola of Nigeria returned a positive test for a banned stimulant.

Poonia is the second Indian athlete after Milkha Singh to harvest gold in track and field events and her title enabled the country to equal its previous-best gold medal haul in Games history. The country had won 30 gold at Manchester eight years ago.

She flounced the discus event with Harwant Kaur (60.66m) and national record holder Seema Antil (58.46m) hammering the silver and bronze to lift the host country’s tally in athletics to a record seven.

With 81 medals, 30 of this gold, as at Manchester 2002, the record run persists. This is India’s all-time best show at the CWG.

Tags: Commonwealth Games, Commonwealth Games, Discus Throw, Harwant Kaur, Indian Sports, Krishna Poonia, Seema Antil, Sports, Sports India