Singh was persuaded by Jawaharlal Nehru to set aside his memories of the Partition era to race successfully in 1960 against Abdul Khaliq in Pakistan, where a post-race comment by the then General Ayub Khan led to him acquiring the nickname of The Flying Sikh. Before Vikas Gowda won the gold in 2014, Milkha was the only Indian male to have won an individual athletics gold medal at those Games. This latter achievement made him the first gold medalist at the Commonwealth Games from independent India. He then won a gold medal in the 400m (440 yards at this time) competition at the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games with a time of 46.6 seconds. In 1958, Singh set records for the 200m and 400m in the National Games of India, held at Cuttack, and also won gold medals in the same events at the Asian Games. His inexperience meant that he did not progress from the heat stages but a meeting with the eventual 400m champion at those Games, Charles Jenkins, both inspired him to greater things and provided him with information about training methods. Singh represented India in the 200m and 400m competitions of the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games. Singh has acknowledged how the army introduced him to sport, saying that "I came from a remote village, I didn't know what running was, or the Olympics". He had run the 10 km distance to and from school as a child and was selected by the army for special training in athletics after finishing sixth in a compulsory cross-country run for new recruits. He successfully gained entrance on his fourth attempt, in 1951, and while stationed at the Electrical Mechanical Engineering Centre in Secunderabad and he was introduced to athletics. Singh became disenchanted with his life and considered becoming a dacoit but was instead persuaded by one of his brothers, Malkhan, to attempt recruitment to the Indian Army. He spent some time at a refugee camp in Purana Qila and at a resettlement colony in Shahdara, both in Delhi. His sister, Ishvar, sold some jewellery to obtain his release. Įscaping the troubles in Punjab, where killings of Hindus and Sikhs were continuing, by moving to Delhi, India, in 1947, Singh lived for a short time with the family of his married sister and was briefly imprisoned at Tihar jail for travelling on a train without a ticket. He was orphaned during the Partition when his parents, a brother and two sisters were killed in the violence that ensued between the villagers and Muslims who tried to convert them. He was one of 15 siblings, eight of whom died before the Partition of India. His birthplace was Govindpura, a village 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) from Muzaffargarh city in Punjab Province, British India (now Muzaffargarh District, Pakistan). Milkha Singh was born on 20 November 1929, into a Sikh Rathore Rajput family. Singh died from complications of COVID-19 on 18 June 2021, at the age of 91, five days after his wife, Nirmal Saini. In 2008, journalist Rohit Brijnath described Singh as "the finest athlete India has ever produced". įrom beginnings that saw him orphaned and displaced during the Partition of India, Singh has become a sporting icon in his country. Singh's fourth-place time of 45.73 seconds was the Indian national record for almost 40 years. Various records were broken in the race, which required a photo-finish and saw American Otis Davis being declared the winner by one-hundredth of a second over German Carl Kaufmann. He led the race till the 200m mark before easing off, allowing others to pass him. The race for which Singh was best remembered is his fourth-place finish in the 400 metres final at the 1960 Olympic Games, which he had entered as one of the favourites. He was awarded the Padma Shri, India's fourth-highest civilian honour, in recognition of his sporting achievements. He represented India in the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome and the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. He also won gold medals in the 19 Asian Games. He is the only athlete to win gold at 400 metres at the Asian Games as well as the Commonwealth Games. Milkha Singh (20 November 1929 – 18 June 2021), also known as " The Flying Sikh", was an Indian track and field sprinter who was introduced to the sport while serving in the Indian Army.
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