Karnam Malleswari (born June 1, 1975, Srikakulam, Andhra Pradesh) is an Indian Weightlifter. To her first time she participated in the 'National Junior weight lifting championship and stood First. In 1992 she participated in the Asian champion ship which took place in Thailand and stood second and won three silver medals. She also won three Bronze medals in the world championship. She won a bronze medal in the 2000 Summer Olympics at Sydney, which made her the first Indian woman to win an Olympic medal. She is a recipient of the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award, India's highest sporting honour for the year 1995-1996. She is also a recipient of the civilian honour Padma Shri in 1999.Malleswari is awarded the Arjuna Award in 1994, India's highest award in sports.
In 1995, Malleswari won the world weightlifting title in her class (54 kg) with a new record, by lifting 113.0 kg in the clean and jerk. Malleswari, who went on to win the contest's gold medal, beat the previous record of 112.5 kg set by China's Long Yuling in December 1993. She also won the 1995 Asian championship. She broke her own records in the Senior National Weightlifting Championship in 1997, and India's first medal, a weightlifting silver, in the 1998 Asian Games.
Malleswari was married in 1997 and took a break from competitive weightlifting, to return in 1998 for the Bangkok Asian Games. However, she struggled with her weight thereafter, and was unable to win a medal at the 1999 Athens World Weightlifting championships.
There was contention over the choice of weightlifters for India's Olympic team. With three contestants and two spots, there was criticism when Kunjarani Devi was left out. However, Malleswari's bronze validates her selection.
Achievements of Malleshwari:
Some of the achievements of Malleshwari are as follows:
- Silver medal in the 63 kg class clean-and-jerk (Asian Games,1998).
- Silver medal in the 54 kg class, clean-and-jerk(Asian Games1997).
- Gold medal (Asian Championships, Japan1996).
- Gold medal (World Championsips, China,1995).
- Three gold medals in 54 kg ,clean-and-jerk( Asian Championships, S. Korea 1995).
- Two gold medals and one silver (World Championships, Istanbul,1994).
- Three gold medals (Asian Championships, Korea,1994).
- She created 3 records in the 63 kg class( Commonwealth women's records, 1999) .
- She won the National Championship in 52 kg body weight from 90-91.
- She won the National Championship in 54 kg body weight from 92-98.
She was felicitated with such honorary awards as:
- Arjuna Award(1994-95)
- Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award(1995-96)
- Padma Shri(1999)
Malleshwari is known as the "iron girl of Andhra Pradesh".
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Balivada Kantha Rao (July 3, 1927 – May 6, 2000) was a noted Telugu novelist and playwright.
He was born in Madapam village in Srikakulam District of Andhra Pradesh, he worked in various capacities as civilian officer in the Indian Navy. He has to his credit 38 major and minor novels, 400 short stories, 5 major plays, host of playlets and radio plays and travelogues. His literary works have been the subjects of doctoral thesis for many scholars.
Many of his novels and stories have been translated into other Indian languages. He won several awards which include Andhra Pradesh Sahitya Akademi, Telugu University Award, Gopichand Literary award, Ravi Shastri Memorial Award and Kalasagar Vishishta Puraskaram. He was the winner of Kendriya Sahitya Akademi Award in 1998 by the Government of India.
He incessantly churned out creative pieces of literature for five long decades. But never, not in any instant, did he ever compromise on quality. His own individual qualities of honesty and uprighteousness, compassion and generosity are reflected in his works.
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