Soundarajan Arokia Rajiv aka Arokia Rajiv is an Indian track and field athlete born on May 22, 1991, in a small hamlet in Vazhuthiyur in the Tiruchirappalli district of Tamil Nadu, India. He competes in the 400 metres event. Born in a poor family, his father Y. Soundararajan works as a school van driver. He did his schooling at the Government Boys Higher Secondary School, Lalgudi, and St. Joseph's College, Tiruchirappalli. Rajiv qualified for representing India in the Rio Olympics 2016 in the 4X400m relay team event. His opponents in the same event were countries like Jamaica, United States, Belgium, Botswana and much more. Rajiv and his team were disqualified in the round 1 heat 2 of the 4x400 relay event. He is the fastest quarter-miler in the country. For any official work like an invitation for events, ceremony etc, one can also contact the office of the athlete if available. Office address, email id, fax number, phone number, social profiles, official website, etc might be shared in this article. Rajiv began his career as a long jumper before taking to 400 metres. During his first year at St Joseph's College, he won a gold and silver in the long jump and triple jump respectively at the university level. The college made sure that he received the necessary diet in the form of afternoon meal. Due he was not having enough money, he began running without shoes and then borrowed spikes from a friend when he competed at the state level. He played in the zonal and state level tournaments. To meet his basic needs and requirements, he joined the Madras Regimental Centre(MRC) Wellington in Ooty as a sepoy. Since then, he has improved as an athlete. He is now a part of the national camp. He was able to win gold and silver medals in the individual 400 metres and 200 metres events after one-year training in the Army where he was trained under the army athletic coach, T Ramachandran and then got promoted to Havildar and a bronze in the Asian Games further promoted him as a junior commissioned officer. He is a 2014 Asian Games Bronze medallist held in Incheon, South Korea and clocked 45.92 seconds in the final bettering his previous best of 46.13 seconds, which he had achieved at the National Inter-State Championships in Lucknow in June 2014. He is also a one-time Asian Games finalist, four times Asian Championships finalist and four times National champion. Though he failed to qualify for the finals of the 4x400 m relay event in the 2016 Rio Olympics but surely succeeded in inspiring the nation.
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