Kamaljeet Sandhu (born 20 August 1948) is a female Indian athlete who won gold medal at 1970 Bangkok Asian Games in 400 m race. She ran the distance in 57.3 seconds. She is the first Indian woman athlete to win an individual gold medal at Asian games. She is from

Punjab Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising a ...

state in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. She received

Padma Shri Padma Shri ( IAST: ''padma śrī''), also spelled Padma Shree, is the fourth-highest civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is conf ...

award in 1971. In 1971, she was one of the finalists in the World University Games held at Turin, Italy, in 400 metres race. She participated in the Women's 400 metres at the

1972 Munich Olympics The 1972 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XX Olympiad () and commonly known as Munich 1972 (german: München 1972), was an international multi-sport event held in Munich, West Germany, from 26 August to 11 September 1972. ...

, bowing out in the heats. Kamaljeet retired from athletics in 1973. She was also a national-level basketball and inter-varsity hockey player. She went to the 1982 Asian Games as the coach of the Indian women's sprint team. She is also an alumna of Scindia Kanya Vidyalaya.

References

Asian Games gold medalists for India Athletes (track and field) at the 1972 Summer Olympics Olympic athletes of India Sportswomen from Punjab, India Indian female sprinters 20th-century Indian women 20th-century Indian people Recipients of the Padma Shri in sports 1948 births Living people Indian Sikhs Asian Games medalists in athletics (track and field) Athletes (track and field) at the 1970 Asian Games Medalists at the 1970 Asian Games {{India-athletics-bio-stub