Sabeena Saleem Athika (born 1968) is an Indian bowler from

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is the southernmost States and union territories of India, state of India. The List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of Indi ...

. She has won four national championships. She has also participated in five

AMF World Cup The QubicaAMF Bowling World Cup, previously known as the International Masters and AMF Bowling World Cup, is an annual Ten-pin bowling championship sponsored by QubicaAMF Worldwide, and the largest in bowling in terms of number of participating nat ...

s. In 2006, along with her 20-year-old daughter Sana, Sabeena captured the National Bowling Doubles Championship.

Early life

Sabeena Saleem was born in India to a

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family. She studied in the M.W.A School(Conran Smith Road, Chennai) then in Adarsh Vidyalaya in

Chennai Chennai, also known as Madras (List of renamed places in India#Tamil Nadu, its official name until 1996), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Tamil Nadu by population, largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and ...

. She married a businessman, Anwar Saleem, when she was 18 years old, thus leaving her academic and sports career. From her school days, Sabeena was an athlete and sports enthusiast. Sabeena represented her school in

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and basketball. She won a lot of trophies in her teenage days. After that, she took up a course to become a fashion designer. It was not until 1998, when she was 30 years old, that she took to the sport of

bowling Bowling is a Throwing sports#Target sports, target sport and recreational activity in which a player rolls a bowling ball, ball toward Bowling pin, pins (in pin bowling) or another target (in target bowling). Most references to ''bowling'' are ...

professionally. It is important to note that being from a traditional and conservative

family, it wasn't easy for Sabeena to enter sports. But she got immense support from her family before and after her marriage. Indeed, she gives the credit of her success to her husband, Anwar Saleem and her children, daughter Sana (herself a professional bowler) and son Ahad.

Professional career

Sabeena took to bowling in 1999 after watching her daughter Sana play the game in a local club. She became so interested in the game that she took it up professionally, putting her business of fashion designing on the back burner. Since then, she has won four National Championships in singles and one in doubles with daughter Sana. Sabeena first won the national championship in 2001 in

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. Then she became the national champion again in 2003 beating D Elizabeth. She has also represented India at the

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Games in 2002. She was the only Indian woman to qualify for the tourney after she scored at an average of 169.36, just higher than the 165 cut-off average for the Games. She was also the only Indian women to represent the country at the AMF World Cup 2002 in

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where 90 countries participated. Out of the 90 participants, she was ranked 61st in the World Cup. Sabeena has also won the National Championships in 2006 and is the current Nation Champion in India. In late 2006, Sabeena and her daughter Sana made history of sorts after being selected for the Indian bowling team for the

Asian Games The Asian Games, also known as Asiad, is a continental multi-sport event held every four years for athletes of Asia. The Games were regulated by Asian Games Federation from the 1951 Asian Games, first Games in New Delhi, India in 1951, until ...

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. It is for the first time in the history of Indian Bowling that a mother and her daughter have made it to the Asian Games simultaneously. Mother Sabeena and daughter Sana have participated together in tournaments earlier at the Bangkok Open and the National Championships, but not at a stage as big as the Asian Games. When she started, Sabeena's bowling style was straight bowling. However, since 2001, she has been learning hooked bowling and has taken up hooked bowling full-time. She is a self-taught bowling professional.

Career synopsis

*1998 – Started her career in bowling. *1999 – Played her first state-level competitive tournament. *2000 – Participated in the National Championships for the first time. *2001 – Won the National Championship for the first time. *2002 – Represented India at the

Asiad and the AMF World Cup. *2003 – Won the National Championships for the second time. *2004 – Won the National Championships again. *2005 – Won the DU Bowl Championship in

. *2006 – Won the National Championships with her daughter Sana in the doubles and along with her daughter made it to the Indian team for the

References

*''Mom, daughter make Asian Bowling team''. ''

The Times of India ''The Times of India'' (''TOI'') is an Indian English-language daily newspaper and digital news media owned and managed by the Times Group. It is the List of newspapers in India by circulation, third-largest newspaper in India by circulation an ...

'',

. 26 November 2006. *. ''

The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It was founded as a weekly publication in 1878 by the Triplicane Six, becoming a daily in 1889. It is one of the India ...

''. Retrieved 29 November 2006.
Report on National Championship 2006 in The Hindu
''The Hindu''. Retrieved 29 November 2006
A Family Affair
''

Deccan Herald ''Deccan Herald'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper published from the Indian state of Karnataka. It was founded by businessman K. N. Guruswamy and launched on 17 June 1948. It is published by The Printers Mysore, a privately hel ...

''. Retrieved 29 November 2006 *, ''The Hindu''. Retrieved 29 November 2006

External links

Sabeena on BowlersJournal.comSabeena at Asian Bowling Federation Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saleem, Sabeena 1968 births Living people Indian ten-pin bowling players Bowlers at the 2006 Asian Games Asian Games competitors for India

Early life

Professional career

Career synopsis

See also

References

External links