The past year has been a great one for Indian women in sports and we are so proud. Bhavna Tokekar, 47-year-old, won four gold medals at the Open Asian Powerlifting Championships and Mansi Josh got the gold at The BWF World Championships. Women athletes have been on an amazing journey.
Adding more stars to this journey is Sweety Kumari who has been picked as the ‘international young player of the year’ by reputed women’s rugby website Scrumqueens. The year-end poll had a mix of 10 shortlisted nominations from across the world and then followed a public poll that picked the Indian, who was earlier declared by Asia Rugby as the “continent’s fastest player”.
This 19-year-old’s journey started when she loved her first spikes gifted by an athletics coach in Patna because she felt like she was flying on the cinder track, just skimming the ground. After that, she moved to rugby and emerged as a star. She loved watching defenders fly and fall in vain around her as she made runs.
She hails from Nawada village in Barh Tehsil of Patna where she first ran the 100m race in just 11.58 seconds. Sweety then channeled her pace into rugby where she was nicknamed India’s ‘Scoring Machine’ by her teammates.
Talking about her, Scrumqueens wrote, “She impressed from the start, but it was this year that she started making a big impact in Asia, at both sevens and fifteens. Described by Asia Rugby as the continent’s fastest player, her explosive pace and power has resulted in her top-scoring at most of India’s sevens tournaments, as well as scoring two outstanding tries in their first ever test match win against Singapore.”
Sweety started out with being a sprinter for her government school, district and then state too. Talking about her family she said, “My father keeps scolding my siblings to study and tells them ‘Sweety ki life toh set hai, usse kuchh seekho’.“
Her father worked as a handyman and her mother was an Anganwadi worker.
“My father put me ahead of others and helped me in every way he could. I would tell coaches to lend me spikes, I would prove I deserved them by winning,” the young star added.
Talking about both her parents she says that she’s yet to taste non-vegetarian food from outside her home. “I love the mutton and chicken that my mother makes. But somehow, I can’t eat meat outside. I live on bread, milk, cornflakes and lots of fruits if I don’t get vegetarian food abroad,” she says.
Tweeple Share Congratulatory Messages For The Rugby Player
They lauded Sweety and sent her best wishes for her bright future.
More power to you, Sweety. You’re making the entire country so proud and we can’t wait to see the new heights you reach in the future.
