Mamatha Poojary

Poojary in 2010

Mamatha Poojary fondly known as Kabaddi Queen born in 1986 is an Indian professional international kabaddi player. She is the reigning Captain of the Indian women’s Kabaddi team. On 2nd Sep 2014 she was conferred with the Arjuna Award by President Pranab Mukherjee in recognition of her achievements in Kabaddi.^[1]

Early life

Mamatha Poojary was born in 1986 in a Hindu family to a farmer Boja Poojary and Kitti Poojary in Karkala taluk, Udupi district, Karnataka. She is currently employed by the South Central Railways Zone of Indian Railways. Mamatha finished her schooling in Hermunde and Ajekar and graduated from Gokarnatha College, Mangalore.

Career

During her school days she was actively involved in sports like volleyball, short-put and kabaddi. But it was the passion for kabaddi that was a clincher. Her hunt for Awards set in motion when she represented Mangalore university at the international match held at tirunelveli. She won the Gold medal. She also won medals in open kabaddi tournaments held at Hingaat and Dadar. Mamatha was a part of the Indian Kabaddi team that won Gold in the south Asia games held in Colombo in 2006.

Her other achievements include medals at the

• Asian beach sports kabaddi match held at Baali
• Second Asian women's kabaddi championship held at Tehran of Iran
• Third women's kabaddi championship held in Chennai
• Kabaddi at the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou, China^[2]
• Indoor kabaddi at the 2013 Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games.^[3]

As captain of the Indian women's kabaddi team, she led her team to victory in the finals of the inaugural 2012 world cup.^[4]

References