K. M. Beenamol won two gold medals and a silver at the 2002 Asian Games in Busan and shared the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, India’s highest sporting honour, for 2002-03. A 400m and 800m runner from Kerala’s Idukki district, she reached an Olympic semi-final in Sydney in 2000 and ran in the Indian women’s 4x400m relay team that set a national record at the Athens Olympics four years later.
Name: Kalayathumkuzhi Mathews Beenamol | Born: 15 August 1975, Kombodinjal, Idukki district, Kerala | Sport: Athletics | Event: 400m, 800m, 4x400m relay
A runner from the hills of Idukki
Beenamol grew up in Kombodinjal, a village in the hill district of Idukki, and came through the Kerala athletics system that produced so many of India’s leading women runners in the 1980s and 1990s. Her coach for much of her career was Raju Paul. She began competing at national level in the early 1990s and gradually made the one-lap race her own, while also developing the strength and pace judgement needed for 800 metres. Her running career at the top level lasted from 1990 to 2004.
Sydney 2000 and a career-best season
The 2000 season was the most productive of her career on the track. At the Asian Championships in Jakarta she won silver in the 400m in 51.41 seconds and gold as part of the Indian 4x400m relay team, which ran 3:31.54. Earlier that year, in Kyiv, she ran her personal best of 51.21 seconds over 400m. At the Sydney Olympics she reached the semi-finals, becoming only the third Indian woman to get that far in an Olympic athletics event.
Double gold in Busan
Her finest championship came at the 2002 Asian Games in Busan, South Korea. Beenamol won the women’s 800m in 2:04.17, a race in which tactical running counted as much as raw speed, and took silver in the 400m. She also ran in India’s 4x400m relay team, which won gold in 3:30.84. Three medals, two of them gold, made her one of the most successful Indian athletes at those Games. Her brother, K. M. Binu, won silver in the men’s 800m, giving the family a rare double on the same continental stage.
That same year, in New Delhi, she ran her lifetime best of 2:02.01 for 800m, confirming that the switch to the longer race was more than an experiment.
Athens and the relay record
By 2004 India had built a strong women’s 4x400m squad, and Beenamol was one of its senior members. At the Athens Olympics the team set a national record of 3:26.89 and reached the final, one of the best showings by an Indian women’s team in Olympic athletics. Athens was her last major championship.
National honours
Beenamol received the Arjuna Award in 2000, after her Sydney season. Following the Busan Games she was named joint winner of the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna for 2002-03, sharing it with the shooter Anjali Bhagwat. The Padma Shri followed in 2004. In 2010 she was among the athletes chosen to carry the Queen’s Baton through Kerala ahead of the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, handing it to the state’s Chief Minister during the relay.
Range across two distances
What set Beenamol apart was her range. Plenty of Indian runners have been good at one of the two distances; she won Asian medals at both, and added relay gold at the same championships. The 400m demands sustained sprinting and the 800m demands tactics, positioning and a finishing kick, and she was competitive in both for most of a decade. Her personal bests of 51.21 and 2:02.01 show how close she came to world-class level in both.
Career record and honours
- 2002 Asian Games, Busan: gold, 800m (2:04.17); gold, 4x400m relay (3:30.84); silver, 400m
- 2000 Asian Championships, Jakarta: gold, 4x400m relay (3:31.54); silver, 400m (51.41)
- 2000 Olympic Games, Sydney: semi-finalist
- 2004 Olympic Games, Athens: 4x400m relay finalist, national record 3:26.89
- Personal bests: 400m 51.21 (Kyiv, 2000); 800m 2:02.01 (New Delhi, 2002)
- Arjuna Award: 2000
- Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna: 2002-03 (joint, with Anjali Bhagwat)
- Padma Shri: 2004
