Arokia Rajiv, hailing from Tiruchirapalli district of Tamil Nadu and Naib Subedar in Madras Regiment was today conferred with the Arjuna Award for his outstanding contribution to the athletic fields.

This award to a serving army personnel is a matter of great pride for the entire Indian Army, his unit, Madras Regimental Centre and his family members.

Arokia Rajiv becomes the second Arjuna Awardee from the Madras Regiment where Havildar Peter Thangaraj was awarded an Arjuna for his outstanding achievements as a national team football goalkeeper, an official release said today.
Enrolled into the Regiment on March 15 2011 Rajiv has come a long way in his sporting career through hard work, dedication and perseverance.

His first major achievement was a gold medal at Open National Athletics Championship for 400 metres run held at Chennai in September 2012 and on securing gold medal at 63rd Inter Services Athletics Championship held at Hyderabad in August 2013, he was granted his first out of turn promotion to the Rank of Havildar.

In September 2014 he qualified for 17th Asian Games held at Incheon, Korea in 400 meters run and secured bronze medal after which he was given his second out of turn promotion to the rank of Naib Subedar.

His growth as an international athlete continued and in 6th World Military Games held at South Korea in October 2015, he secured silver medal in 400 meters run.

The highest point of his sporting career came when he qualified for Rio Olympics in 4×400 meters relay at the Indian Grand Prix held at Bangalore last year by securing gold medal.