Ashwini Akkunji, also known as Ashwini Chidananda Shetty Akkunji, is a well known personality in Indian athletics who competes as a sprint athlete and specializes in 400 meters. She has bagged gold medals at the 2010 Commonwealth Games and the 2010 Asian Games in which she was a part of the 4 x 400 m relay team event along with Sini Jose, Mandeep Kaur and Manjeet Kaur. She also won an individual gold medal on 25th November 2010 at the 2010 Asian Games in the 400 metres hurdles, which was organized at Guangzhou, in China. Presently Ashwini Akkunji works with the Indian Railways.
At the 54th National Inter-State Athletics Championships, Ashwini Akkunji exhibited her excellent form and performed brilliantly in 400m hurdles creating a new meet record of 57.43 seconds that too in the scorching heat of Lucknow. With this she also broke the four-year-old mark created by Jauna Murmu. Ashwini is nicknamed as Gensale Express. She has marked her contribution in 38 gold medals which the country won during Delhi Commonwealth Games.
Early Life of Ashwini Akkunji
Ashwini Akkunji was born on 7th October 1987 in Siddapura of Kundapura taluk situated in the Udupi district of the south Indian state Karnataka to a Kannada speaking family. Her mother is Yashoda Shetty Akkunji and father is B. R. Chidananda Shetty. She belongs to an agriculturist family having a sporting legacy. She spent her childhood in her family`s 5 acre farmland surrounded by Areca nut plantations. She has two elder siblings, a brother, Amith, and a sister, Dipti.
Achievements of Ashwini Akkunji
For her contributions in the arena of Indian athletics, she has been awarded the Rajyotsava Prashasti by the Indian State Government of Karnataka in 2010 which is a civilian honour. This award constituted a cash payment worth one hundred thousand Rupees, a grant of priority in the allotment of house sites by the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) and a 20 gram gold medallion. Both the national and state governments have rewarded her financially as recognition to the gold medal that she won in the year 2010. She has also been rewarded by the Indian Railways.
