Subedar Ajay Anant Sawant from the Army’s 61 Cavalry has been conferred the Arjuna award for the equestrian sport of tent pegging.
Subedar Sawant joined the Army in 1993 and had no prior background in equestrian sports. Subedar Sawant has won several medals over the years. He won his first international participation in 2002 and won the team silver in the 2018 World Cup in Abu Dhabi.
His focus is now on the Tent Pegging World Cup in 2023, which is also his year of retirement from Service, an Army officer said. Tent pegging is a sport played on horse back in which the rider has to pick up a target with a lance or sword and is popular in commonwealth countries.
61 Cavalry is the Army’s most decorated regiment in sports and this is its 12th Arjuna Award. Lt. Col. T.K. Singh was the first Arjuna awardee from the regiment in 1963 and the latest was Col. Ravi Rathore in 2018, also the Regiment’s ex-Commanding Officer.
Subedar Sawant comes from a family of military personnel. His father, Naik Anant Sawant, served in 2 Maratha Light Infantry and was a veteran of the 1971 War. His elder brother Hav Govind Sawant was a veteran of 1999 Kargil conflict and served as an Army medical assistant in Leh Sector during the operations. His cousin is a serving Brigadier from Maratha Light Infantry.
