Gayathry Govindharaj (born 27 April 1991) is an Indian

athlete An athlete (also sportsman or sportswoman) is a person who competes in one or more sports that involve physical strength, speed, or endurance. Athletes may be professionals or amateurs. Most professional athletes have particularly well-devel ...

who competes in the

100 metres hurdles The 100 metres hurdles, or 100-meter hurdles, is a track and field event run mainly by women (the male counterpart is the 110 metres hurdles). For the race, ten Hurdling, hurdles of a height of are placed along a straight course of . The first h ...

and

Triple jump The triple jump, sometimes referred to as the hop, step and jump or the hop, skip and jump, is a track and field event, similar to the long jump. As a group, the two events are referred to as the "horizontal jumps". The competitor runs down th ...

events. She was supported by

Olympic Gold Quest Olympic Gold Quest (OGQ) is a program of the Foundation for Promotion of Sports and Games, a Not for Profit (Section 25) Company, which is committed to bridging the gap between the best athletes in India and the best athletes in the world thus hel ...

, a not-for-profit foundation that identifies and supports Indian athletes. She works with the Indian

Income Tax department The Income Tax Department (also referred to as IT Department or ITD) is a government agency undertaking direct tax collection of the government of India. It functions under the Department of Revenue of the Ministry of Finance. The Income Tax De ...

. She was roughed up DMK cadres and her vehicle was damaged when raiding the premises of alleged DMK partymen. She was later admitted in a hospital for wounds. She is famously called as "Indian Usain Bolt".

Early life and education

Gayathry comes from a small village in Ariyalur district. She comes from a humble background and before she gained fame, her family found it difficult to make ends meet. Due to her economic background her parents could not afford to provide her a formal training hence was trained at St.Josephs's Sports Academy(Sponsored by St.Joseph's College of Engineering,Chennai) and she says in an interview with

The Indian Express ''The Indian Express'' is an English-language Indian daily newspaper founded in 1932. It is published in Mumbai by the Indian Express Group. In 1999, eight years after the group's founder Ramnath Goenka's death in 1991, the group was split betw ...

, "''My parents recollect that I used to run around a lot during my childhood. In school, I used to participate in every athletic event in every tournament''." She completed her schooling from St.Ursula's A.I.Hr.Sec School, Church Park, Chennai in 2008. After securing 91 per cent in her twelfth standard , She went to pursue her Master's Degree in Business Administration from St.Joseph's College of engineering St Joseph's College of Engineering., where, she secured 33rd Rank in Anna University among 8599 qualified candidates. Her mothers dream of pursuing Ph.D Came true, when she was awarded a Ph.D (Business Administration - Commerce) by the University of Madras in 2022, for her Inter-disciplinary thesis on "Effectiveness of Training" .

Career and achievements

After participating in various inter college sports events, she gained fame through the 18th Zone Junior inter-State athletic Championship (2006) in Raichur. She won gold in U-16 100M hurdles in this. She also broke Poonam Belliappa's 11-year-old record of 14.40 seconds in the under-18 category in the year 2016. This was followed by her another 14.04 seconds in 2008 and in

Mysore Mysore (), officially Mysuru (), is a city in the southern part of the state of Karnataka, India. Mysore city is geographically located between 12° 18′ 26″ north latitude and 76° 38′ 59″ east longitude. It is located at an altitude of ...

she beat her own record by 0.02 seconds. Her left knee was injured during the triple jump event of the

Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth Games, often referred to as the Friendly Games or simply the Comm Games, are a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930, and, with the exce ...

2010 that happened in

New Delhi New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament House ...

. After being operated on her left leg, she said in an interview with

The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It began as a weekly in 1878 and became a daily in 1889. It is one of the Indian newspapers of record and the secon ...

that she has been practicing hard to be a part of sports once again.

References

External links

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Gayathry Govindharaj
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Govindaraj, Gayathri 1991 births Living people Athletes from Tamil Nadu Sportspeople from Chennai Indian female sprinters Indian female triple jumpers 21st-century Indian women 21st-century Indian people Indian female hurdlers Athletes (track and field) at the 2010 Commonwealth Games Sportswomen from Tamil Nadu South Asian Games gold medalists for India South Asian Games medalists in athletics Commonwealth Games competitors for India