Bihar’s 19-YO Rugby Player Sweety Kumari Declared ‘International Young Player Of The Year’

From 47-year-old Bhavna Tokekar winning 4 gold medals at the Open Asian Powerlifting Championships, 30-year-old Manasi Joshi bagging gold At The BWF World Championships to 32-year-old Koneru Humpy claiming the Women’s World Rapid Chess Championship title, it has been an amazing journey for Indian women in sports.

According to The Indian Express, 19-year-old Sweety Kumari from Nawada village in Barh Tehsil of Patna has now been named the “international young player of the year” by women’s rugby website Scrumqueens.

*Formed her own rugby team aged 14
*In her national team at 18
*Hailed by @asiarugby as the fastest player on the continent
*Our first Asian award winner
*Find out more about @RugbyIndia's Sweety Kumari, our international young player of the yearhttps://t.co/CWd8pqd7hc pic.twitter.com/88xMY4PN7y

— Scrumqueens – Women’s Rugby (@ScrumQueens) December 30, 2019

According to Hindustan Times, her journey started as a sprinter. When she ran a 100m dash in 11.58 seconds at an athletics meet, a rugby coach introduced her to the game and the rest, as they say, is history. Sweety revealed,

“Pass behind, run in front was all I understood initially at a junior pre-camp. Then American coach Mike Fryday taught me to run wide on the flanks and not get caught by defenders. I’m also very smart and use my mind effectively. The speed is a God gift, I only train hard on the rhythm of running and stepping in and out at full speed.”

Talking about being her USP (i.e. her speed) that earned her the “continent’s fastest player” title by Asia Rugby and the nickname of “Scoring Machine” by her teammates, she said,

“They all try, they come from the front and behind, and pull me. But nobody can match my speed.”

Twitter was overjoyed at the wonderful news and congratulated the player for receiving such an honour.

The Bihari in me is feeling superchuffed. Not being parochial. I just know first hand how much tougher it is for a girl from my part of the world to make one such impact.

Go, Sweety Kumari! 🙂

PS: Bollywood, please don't make a biopic on her. Not yet.https://t.co/8gnECsV8iq

— Vaibhav Vishal (@ofnosurnamefame) January 5, 2020

Sweety Kumari from Nawada village, Barh, #Patna, #Bihar has been named as the International Young Player of the Year by women's rugby website Srumqueens. "They all try, they come from front and behind, and pull me. But nobody can match my speed.” #India 🇮🇳https://t.co/TSSnHGzjSA

— Partha Ghosh (@heyyparth) January 5, 2020

Sweety Kumari India, to her credits:
1. Continents' fastest player by @asiarugby
2. International Young Player of the year by @ScrumQueens.
3. 'Scoring Machine' by team mates. pic.twitter.com/C3lI1h7CrL

— M. Sheode (@apmsstructure) January 5, 2020

A proud moment for 🇮🇳!@RugbyIndia player Sweety Kumari gets selected by @ScrumQueens as the 'International Young Player of the Year' 🙌🏼

Congratulations Sweety, you are an inspiration for budding youngsters who aim to make a career in the sport 🏉🙏🏼@WorldRugby7s @asiarugby

— JSW Sports (@jswsports) January 5, 2020

Making INDIA proud… ❤️ https://t.co/MkxiZucBOJ

— ifra kabir (@ifrakabir) January 5, 2020

Kudos Sweety! You make us so proud.

Cover Image Source