V. K. Vismaya

Velluva Koroth Vismaya is an Indian woman track and field athlete born on 14th May 1997. She hails from Sreekandapuram village of Kerala’s Kannur district. She represents India in a 400m run and 4*400m relay team.

Background

V.K. Vismaya comes from a humble family background. Her father is a farmer and her mother is a hostel warden.

Vismaya was a studious student. She did pretty well in academics. In 12th Boards, she took science stream and scored 92%. Vismaya wasn’t interested in sports until she joined Assumption College at Changanacherry in the Kottayam district of Kerala. After joining the college, she decided to try athletics though she wasn’t ready for it, and began running.

Assumption College is one of the best colleges for Sports and Athletics in Kerala and they have received awards for it from the state government. She didn’t keep much expectation in athletics as she was a mediocre runner back in her college. During her graduation, she gave equal importance to her studies and sports. Vismaya credits her sister for motivating her to take up the sport. She is a BSc Mathematics graduate. While in the final year of her graduation, she began to get more opportunities in sports.

Rise to Glory

Vismaya began to take athletics, especially running, seriously when she began to perform well in the college and district level competitions. She was initially trained under coach Raju Paul who helped her to shape her career.

The breakthrough in her career came in 2017 when won a Silver medal at the All India Inter-State University Athletics Championships. In the same year, Vismaya got selected for the national camp where her talent was spotted by coach Galina Bhukharina. Under the guidance of Galina, Vismaya did well and won medals in the national competitions.

In 2019, Vismaya won a Gold medal and recorded her new personal best by clocking 52.12s in 400m at the International Athletic Meeting at Brno in the Czech Republic. Later in the year, she won a Gold medal at the National Open Athletics Championships.

Major Achievements

V.K. Vismaya made her international debut at the 2018 Asian Games. Her international debut was a special moment of her career as she won her first international Gold medal in the 4*400m relay team in the Asian Games held in Jakarta, Indonesia.

In 2019, Vismaya won two Silver medals in the 4*400m relay team and 4*400 mixed relay team at the Asian Athletics Championships held at Doha in Qatar. At the 2019 World Athletics Championships, the mixed relay team of Vismaya, Muhammad Anas, Noah Nirmal Tom, and Jisna Mathew qualified for the final of the event after they clocked 3:16.14s in the heats. But, the team finished seventh in the final of the World Athletics Championships with the timing of 3:15.77s.

Vismaya will be representing India at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. She is part of the mixed relay team that qualified for the Olympics after the team made it to the final of the World Athletics Championships in 2019.