| Nationality: | Indian |
| Club: | Oil and Natural Gas Corporation |
| Birth Date: | 1990 6, df=yes |
| Birth Place: | Gonikoppal, Karnataka, India[1] |
| Country: | India |
| Height: | 173 cm |
| Weight: | 60 kg |
| Coach: | Nagapuri Ramesh |
| Sport: | Athletics |
| Event: | 200–800 m |
| Pb: | 200 m – 24.31 (2018) 400 m – 51.73 (2014) 800 m – 2:09.24 (2017) |
| Updated: | 21 April 2019 |
Machettira Raju Poovamma (born 5 June 1990) is an Indian sprinter who specialises in the 400 metres distance.[2] As a member of the Indian 4 × 400 m relay teams she participated in the 2016 Olympics and won gold medals at the 2014 and 2018 Asian Games and 2013 and 2017 Asian championships; individually she won a silver medal in 2013 and a bronze in 2014 at those competitions. She received the Arjuna Award in 2015 for her contributions to athletics.[3]
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]
| Representing | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | World Junior Championships | Beijing, China | 7th (h) | 400 m | 56.39 | |
| 2007 | World Youth Championships | Ostrava, Czech Republic | 7th | 400 m | 55.49 | |
| 2008 | World Junior Championships | Bydgoszcz, Poland | 8th (h) | 400 m | 57.94 | |
| Commonwealth Youth Games | Pune, India | 2nd | 400 m | 55.17 | ||
| 1st | 4 × 400 m relay | 3:42.02 | ||||
| 2013 | Asian Championships | Pune, India | 2nd | 400 m | 53.37 | |
| 1st | 4 × 400 m relay | 3:32.26 | ||||
| World Championships | Moscow, Russia | 5th (h) | 4 × 400 m relay | 3:38.81 | ||
| 2014 | Asian Games | Incheon, South Korea | 3rd | 400 m | 52.36 | |
| 1st | 4 × 400 m relay | 3:28.68 | ||||
| 2015 | Asian Championships | Wuhan, China | 2nd | 400 m | 53.07 | |
| 2nd | 4 × 400 m relay | 3:33.81 | ||||
| World Championships | Beijing, China | 14th (h) | 4 × 400 m relay | 3:29.08 | ||
| 2016 | Olympic Games | Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | 7th (h) | 4 × 400 m relay | 3:29.53 | |
| 2017 | Asian Championships | Bhubaneswar, India | 4th | 400 m | 53.36 | |
| 2018 | Commonwealth Games | Gold Coast, Australia | 24th (h) | 400 m | 53.72 | |
| 7th | 4 × 400 m relay | 3:33.61 | ||||
| Asian Games | Jakarta, Indonesia | bgcolor=gold | 1st | 4 × 400 m relay | 3:28.72 | |
| 2019 | World Championships | Doha, Qatar | 11th (h) | 4 × 400 m relay | 3:29.42 | |