M. R. Poovamma

Poovamma was born to M. G. Raju and Jaji. She completed her primary and higher education in Mangalore[4] and acquired her bachelor's degree in business management from the Sri Dharmasthala Manjunatheshwara College of Business Management, Karnataka.[5] Her brother MR Manju also competed in the 400 m events at the national level.[1][6]

Poovamma won a silver medal in the 400 m and a gold in the 4 × 400 m relay at the 2008 Commonwealth Youth Games. She then won a senior national 400 m title in September 2011 in Kolkata. At the 2012 Asian Grands Prix Poovamma won two gold and a silver medal.[7] She also won a gold medal at the 2013 Asian Grand Prix in Bangkok. Poovamma represented India in the Moscow World Athletics Championships 2013[8] where she was also a part of the women's 4 × 400 m relay team.

She won the gold medal in women's 4×400 metres relay at the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea along with Tintu Luka, Mandeep Kaur and Priyanka Pawar.[9][10] 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 4 × 400 m team at the 2017 Asian Athletics Championships in Bhubaneshwar, which also included Debashree Mazumdar, Jisna Mathew and Nirmala Sheoran. The team had a problematic baton exchange, but Nirmala recovered the time in the final leg.[11]