Arokia RAJIV

His talent was spotted early at the Government Boys Higher Secondary School in Lalgudi town, where Rajiv studied. T Ramachandran, the school’s athletics coach, felt that Rajiv had a naturally good running style.

At St. Joseph's College in Tiruchirappalli, Rajiv went on to win in the long jump and triple jump at the university level.

However, his family did not have the resources needed for his nutrition and training. The son of a truck driver, Rajiv enrolled in the 8th Battalion of the Madras Regiment of the Indian Army in 2011 so that he could get better facilities.

Arokia Rajiv had once said that his interest in competing at the Olympics was sparked by a comment from his aunt, who remarked that Indians are only good at eating.

In 2017, he won gold in the men’s 4x400m relay and silver in the 400m at the Asian Championships in Bhubaneswar. 

The junior commissioned officer was honoured with the Arjuna Award by the Indian government in 2017, becoming the second recipient of the award from the Madras Regiment. 

The quarter-miler has a personal best 400m timing of 45.37 seconds, which came when he narrowly missed out on bronze at the 2019 Asian Athletics Championships in Doha.

Confined to the National Institute of Sports in Patiala due to the COVID-19 lockdown, Arokia Rajiv’s routine has been six hours of daily practice, three in the morning and three in the evening. 

He said that it has been mentally challenging to be largely confined to one’s room away from family. With hardly any event to participate in since the pandemic, Arokia Rajiv said there came a time when he even began to question the point of training.

However, qualifying for Tokyo 2020 has dispelled the gloom and made him happy. The sprinter’s goal is to finish on the podium in Tokyo.