Ponnachettira Ashwini Ponnappa

Ponnachettira (Machimanda) Ashwini Ponappa born on 18 September 1989 from Kodagu is a famous Kodava sportsperson. She is an Indian Badminton player who represents the nation in Women’s doubles and mixed doubles Badminton. The right handed shuttler has been representing India on the world stage since 2007.

Family

Father

Machimanda A Ponnappa

Mother

Machimanda Kaveri Ponnappa

Husband

Ponnachettira Karan Medappa

Brother

Machimanda Appanna

Education

• School- St Francis Xavier’s Girls high school, Bangalore
• College-Mount Carmel College, Bangalore and St Mary’s College, Hyderabad

Career

• Ashwini was interested in badminton at a very young age and was trained in the game since early childhood. She went on to win her first national title in 2004 in the sub-junior girls’ doubles category.
• she won national title in sub-junior girls’ doubles in the year 2005, and then Junior girls’ doubles national title for two times in a row in 2006 and 2007.
• Her first famous victory was when she won India’s first gold in Women’s Doubles at 2010 Commonwealth Games, along with Jwala Gutta.
• In 2011, the duo also became the first Indian pair to win a medal (bronze) at the World Badminton Championship in London.

Achievements

• Secured a Gold Medal at the South Asian Games held in 2006
• Won the National Junior Championship titles in the girls doubles event in 2006 & 2007
• Won Gold at the Common wealth Games in 2010
• She created a record in Paris World championship in 2010 when her smash was measured at 260kmph, the best so far in women’s badminton.
• Won Gold at the Delhi commonwealth Games 2012 Women’s doubles event
• Bagged a Silver medal in the mixed team event of the 2012 commonwealth Games.
• Won Silver medal at the commonwealth Games in 2014.
• She won the Canada Open women’s doubles title by defeating the top-seeded Dutch pair in 2015.
• She competed with Gutta at the 2016 Olympics, but they lost all three of their group stage matches and therefore did not progress further.
• She was part of the Indian team which won gold in the mixed team event, and won bronze with N. Sikki Reddy in the women’s doubles in 2018 commonwealth games.

Medal Record

World champions

• Bronze-2011 London-Women’s doubles

Uber Cup

• Bronze-2014 New Delhi-Women’s Team
• Bronze-2016 Kunshan -Women’s Team

Commonwealth Games

• Gold-2018 Gold Coast-Mixed Team
• Gold- 2010 Delhi-Women’s doubles
• Silver-2014 Glasgow- Women’s doubles
• Silver-2010 Delhi- Mixed Team
• Bronze-2018 Gold Coast-Women’s doubles

Asian Games

• Bronze-2014 Incheon-Women’s Team

Asian Championships

• Bronze-2014 Gimcheon-Women’s Doubles

South Asian Games

• Gold- 2016 Guwahati-Women’s doubles
• Gold- 2016 Guwahati-Women’s Team
• Silver-2016 Guwahati-Mixed Doubles

Awards

• Ekalavya Award in 2008
• Arjuna Award in 2012

Archives 

• Delight in store for doubles