P. U. Chitra

P. U. Chitra
	Chitra at the 2017 Asian Championships
Personal information
Birth name	Palakkeezhil Unnikrishnan Chithra[1]
Born	9 June 1995; Palakkad, Kerala, India
Height	160 cm (5 ft 3 in)[2]
Weight	48 kg (106 lb)
Sport
Sport	Track and field
Event(s)	800–5000 m
Coached by	Nikolai Snesarev (national); N.S. Sijin (personal)[2]
Achievements and titles
Personal best(s)	800 m – 2:12.21 (2013); 1500 m – 4:13.52 (2019); 3000 m – 9:51.13 (2013); 5000 m – 16:36.91 (2015)[3]
Representing India
Asian Games
South Asian Games
Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games
Asian Athletics Championships

Palakkeezhil Unnikrishnan Chitra (born 9 June 1995) is an Indian middle-distance runner who specialises in the 1500m distance. She won gold medals at the 2016 South Asian Games and 2017 Asian Championships and a bronze at the 2018 Asian Games.She won gold medal at the 2019 Doha Asian Athletics Championships

Early life

Chithra is the third of four children of Unnikrishnan & Vasantha Kumari, both agricultural laborers from Kerala. She is an undergraduate student. She did her schooling in Mundur Higher Secondary School in Palakkad. She has been awarded Tata Nano cars by the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council and the government of Kerala for her remarkable achievements in the school meets.[4]

Controversy

Chitra's exclusion from the team for the 2017 World Championships in Athletics by the Athletics Federation of India resulted in controversy in the public and the sport's governance structures. The global body for the sport, the International Association of Athletics Federations, allowed automatic entry to the competition for any continental champion (Chitra was the reigning Asian champion), but deferred team selection to national bodies. She lodged a case at Kerala High Court which completed in her favour, though the timing went beyond the IAAF's selection cut-off date. Chitra received overwhelming support from all sections of public for her fight against the national federation.[5] Commentator KP Mohan believed the right decision had been made to not include Chitra and several other Asian champions, given their low international ranking at that time, though he stated the controversy could have been avoided if the AFI had made its selection criteria clear before the start of the athletics season.[6]

References

Shahina, K. K. (4 August 2017). "PU Chithra: The Girl With Borrowed Shoes". Open. Retrieved 5 August 2018.
Chitra Palakeezh Unnikrishnan Archived 4 September 2018 at the Wayback Machine. asiangames2018.id
P. U. Chitra. IAAF
Cyriac, Biju Babu (4 December 2013). "Chitra, the rising star of Kerala". Times of India.
PU Chitra: IAAF rejects AFI's request to include Chitra for World Championships. Times of India (30 July 2017). Retrieved on 2018-09-04.
Mohan, KP (2017-07-31). Utter mess: India’s athletics body took the right call with PU Chitra but handled it poorly. Scroll. Retrieved 2020-03-03.

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[1] Shahina, K. K. (4 August 2017). "PU Chithra: The Girl With Borrowed Shoes". Open. Retrieved 5 August 2018.

[ind-2] Chitra Palakeezh Unnikrishnan Archived 4 September 2018 at the Wayback Machine. asiangames2018.id

[3] P. U. Chitra. IAAF

[4] Cyriac, Biju Babu (4 December 2013). "Chitra, the rising star of Kerala". Times of India.

[5] PU Chitra: IAAF rejects AFI's request to include Chitra for World Championships. Times of India (30 July 2017). Retrieved on 2018-09-04.

[6] Mohan, KP (2017-07-31). Utter mess: India’s athletics body took the right call with PU Chitra but handled it poorly. Scroll. Retrieved 2020-03-03.