Manju Bala is an Indian track and field athlete who competes in the hammer throw. She finished first in the hammer throw at the 2022 National Senior Inter-State Athletics Championships in Chennai and was later selected in the 37-member Indian athletics team for the 2022 Commonwealth Games. She has also been selected to represent India in the 2022 Asian Games.
Wiki/Biography
Manju Bala Swami was born on Saturday, July 1, 1989, in Chandgothi, Churu District, Rajasthan, India (age 33; as of 2022). Her zodiac sign is Cancer. Manju grew up playing sports and played volleyball until ninth grade. One day, she was on a school trip to Jaisinghsar near Bikaner, where she saw for the first time an athlete throwing a metal ball with a chain attached to it. Manzhu immediately became obsessed with the sport and started practicing after returning home. Later, she was discovered by her coach Rajesh Poonia. Thereafter, Manju went on to win a bronze medal in the school national competition and a gold medal in the youth national competition. She finished fourth at the Asian Junior Athletics Championships in Jakarta. In an interview, she recalled her father’s hardships in raising three athletic children, saying:
Our fathers never stopped us from choosing a sport. He would borrow money from the villagers to help us with our sports. He sent my brother Sandeep to practice at NIS Patiala. When Munish chose boxing, my father would ask bus drivers passing through the village to bring her gloves from Jalandhar. When I started, a hammer cost 800 rupees. He would work overtime at the tea stall to pay for it. He always leaves early and comes home late. “
After her marriage, she moved to Rathundhar (Surajgarh Tehsil) in Jhunjhunu district of Rajasthan. She was appointed Inspector of Income Tax, an honorary appointment.
appearance
Height (approximately): 5′6″
Hair color: black
Eye color: black
family
Parents and siblings
Her father, Vijay Singh, runs a tea stall on Rajgarh-Pilani road in Chandgothi. Manju’s brother Sandeep Kumar Swami is deaf and mute. He won a gold medal in the national javelin throw competition for special athletes. Meanwhile, Manju’s sister Munesh Bala Swami is a boxer and a police officer in Rajasthan.
Manju Bala with her father Vijay Singh in front of Chandgothi tea stall
Manju Bala’s brother Sandeep Kumar Swami and mother
Manju Bala and her sister Munesh Bala Swami
husband and children
Her husband Ramesh Mann is a soldier in the Indian Army. The couple has a daughter (born in 2016) whom the family affectionately calls “Chinu” and “China.”
Manju Bala pictures with husband Ramesh Mann and daughter
medal
gold
- Rajasthan Championship 2021, Sri Ganga Nagar (64.88m)
- Senior Inter-State Athletics Championships 2022, Chennai (64.19)
- 2021 National Athletics Open Championships, Warangal (64.42m)
Manju Bala (centre) at the National Athletics Open 2021, Warangal
- 2021 National Senior Inter-State Athletics Championships, Patiala (61.08m)
- National Senior Inter-State Athletics Championships 2019, Lucknow (57.71)
- 2014 National Senior Inter-State Athletics Championships, Lucknow (62.74m)
- 2014 Federation Cup, Patiala (62.15m)
- Railway Championships 2012, Jabalpur (59.77m)
- 2011 Indian National Games, Ranchi (5673m)
silver
- 2022 National Federation Cup, Tanshipalan (64.01m)
bronze
- 2014 Incheon Asian Games (60.47 million)
Manju Bala (right) at the 2014 Incheon Asian Games
Facts/Trivia
- The bronze medal she won at the 2014 Incheon Asian Games was briefly upgraded to silver after original gold medalist Zhang Wenxiu failed a doping test. However, Zhang Wenxiu successfully overturned the doping ban and was returned the gold medal after the Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld his appeal and said the positive cases were caused by contaminated food.
- During the 2021 National Athletics Open Championships in Warangal, Manju Bala broke the 19-year event record. She set a record of 64.42m, surpassing Hardeep Kaur’s record of 61.67m set in 2002. Her throw of 64.42m was also the second best in the country in the women’s hammer throw, behind only Sarita Romit Singh’s throw of 65.25m.
- After her marriage, she trained under her husband Ramesh Mann. In an interview, she spoke of her supportive in-laws, saying:
My husband Ramesh Mann is a soldier in the Indian Army. Sometimes he trains with me at 4 am in our Ladhundha village in Jhunjhunu district. Sometimes, my mother-in-law would accompany us. The villagers would wonder what we were doing, drawing circles in an open field and throwing a metal ball. “
- She is the recipient of the Maharana Pratap Award (2012-13) in the athletics category.
Categories: Biography
Source: HIS Education