Anju Bobby George

Some Lesser Known Facts About Anju Bobby George

• Does Anju Bobby George smoke?: No

• Does Anju Bobby George drink alcohol?: Not Known

• Anju considers herself blessed to be born in a sports-enthusiast family, as without her father’s encouragement she wouldn’t have been where she is today.

• Despite being acquainted with only the basics of athletics, she won a 100m hurdles and relay race and finished 2nd in the Long Jump and High Jump events at the school level in 1991-92. Additionally, she finished 3rd in 100m hurdles and 4x100m relay race at the National School Games.

• Though she started her athletics career with Heptathlon, a combined athletics competition which has 7 different events, she later chose jump events only and won a medal in the Long Jump event at Delhi Junior Asian Championship 1996.

• In 1999, she made a new ‘national record’ for Triple Jump at the Bangalore Federation Cup. The same year, she won a silver medal at South Asian Federation Games in Nepal.

• In 2001, she won gold medals in Triple Jump and Long Jump events at Ludhiana National Games.

• In 2003, she became the first Indian athlete to win a medal in World Athletics Championship when she won the bronze medal at the World Championships in Paris. 

• She won the gold medal in the Asian Games at Busan in 2002, World Athletics Final at Monte Carlo in 2005, and Asian Championships at Incheon in 2005.

• She was once ranked World # 4 in the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) rankings.

• Both Anju and her husband Robert Bobby George work in the customs department in Chennai.

• She had received prestigious Arjuna award in 2002–2003, Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award in 2003–2004, and Padma Shri award in 2004. 

• In 2016, she founded the ‘Anju Bobby Sports Foundation’ for the long jump and triple jump talent in the 14-16 and 17-19 age groups from the underprivileged sections.