Fifty-two years after Milkha Singh's famous run in Cardiff, an Indian athlete has once again stood atop a Commonwealth Games track and field podium — and this time, it is a woman.
Krishna Poonia, a 33-year-old discus thrower from Rajasthan, produced the throw of her life at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium on Monday evening, sending the discus out to 61.51 metres to claim gold in the women's discus final. Her effort was the highlight of a night that turned into a coronation for Indian athletics, as compatriots Harwant Kaur and Seema Antil followed her home to complete a rare clean sweep of all three medals in the event — the first time India has managed such a feat at these Games.
For Poonia, a Railways employee who trains between shifts and often funds her own overseas training trips, the gold is the culmination of a journey that began on the family farm in Haryana's Agroha village, where hard physical labour, rather than formal coaching, built the strength behind her throws. She married into a family of athletes in Churu, Rajasthan, and it was her husband Virender Singh, himself a former thrower, who first put a discus in her hand.
The road here included a bronze at the 2006 Doha Asian Games and a tenth-place finish at the Beijing Olympics in 2008, where she narrowly missed the final. Delhi, clearly, was different. "This medal is for the crowd, for the country," Poonia said after the medal ceremony, still catching her breath.
With an adoring home crowd behind her, Krishna Poonia has given Indian athletics a golden night to remember — and a new name to watch.
Poonia strikes gold, and history, for India
Krishna Poonia became the first Indian woman to win a Commonwealth Games athletics gold, throwing 61.51m to lead a historic Indian medal sweep in women's discus at Delhi 2010. The Railways employee and Rajasthan-based thrower capped a journey from a farm to the podium.
