New Delhi: The year was 1994. Sunken with grief after the death of his youngest son, Fauja Singh took up jogging as a coping mechanism. This was to be the beginning of a new chapter. Nicknamed the ‘Turbaned Tornado’, Singh decided to take running seriously in 2000 at the age of 89. By 2011, he had earned the distinction of being the world’s oldest marathoner.
He died Monday in his native village in Punjab at the age of 114, struck by a car while crossing a road.
Fauja Singh was born in Beas Pind in Punjab’s Jalandhar on 1 April, 1911. At the onset of his life, his family thought he was crippled as he was not able to walk until the age of five.
He took up farming at a young age to support his family.
In 1992, he moved to England and settled in East London with his son after the death of his wife. Two years later, tragedy struck again. He lost his youngest son.
Singh would spend hours sitting at the cremation site in India. Local villagers who witnessed the harrowing sight advised his family to take him back to the UK.
Upon landing in London, Singh during one of his daily visits to the local gurdwara met a group of elderly men who would go on runs together, among them was Harmander Singh who would go on to become his coach.
Singh’s first public recognition as a marathoner came in 2000 when he completed the London Marathon, in 6 hours and 54 minutes. In the process, he broke the world record as he knocked 58 minutes off the previous record in the 90-plus age bracket.
And he never looked back. With a spine of steel and a soul of sheer resilience, the Indo-British athlete continued his streak of marathons across Toronto, Mumbai and even New York.
At the prime of his career, Singh also finished the 2003 Toronto Waterfront Marathon in 5 hours and 40 minutes in the over-90 category—his personal best.
As a marathoner, he also raised funds for numerous charities. From his perspective, it was his religious beliefs and cultural identity which prompted him to do so.
In 2011, Singh at the ripe age of 100 went on to put his name to eight world age-group records in a single day at the special Ontario Masters Association Fauja Singh Invitational Meet in Toronto. No one in the same age bracket had ever attempted four of these records.
Three days later, on 16 October, 2011, Singh became the world’s oldest marathoner by finishing a marathon as the first centenarian. He finished the Toronto Waterfront Marathon in 8 hours, 11 minutes and 6 seconds.
Since he took more than 14 minutes after the start gun to reach the starting line, the submitted official time for the age group record was 8:25:17.
Despite it being a world record, the reference book Guinness World Records declined to acknowledge the achievement citing Fauja Singh’s inability to furnish his birth certificate.
Official birth records were not maintained in India in 1922.
The renowned marathon runner also got a personal message from Queen Elizabeth II, in which she commended his spirit.
A torchbearer for the London 2012 Olympics, Singh retired at 101 after finishing his final long distance competitive race in Hong Kong, where he completed a 10-km run in 1 hour, 32 minutes and 28 seconds. He was presented the Ellis Island Medal of Honor by the National Ethnic Coalition on 13 November, 2003, in recognition of his role as a racial tolerance icon. He was the first non-American recipient of the honour.
In 2011, a UK-based organisation bestowed on him the title ‘Pride of India’.
A staunch vegetarian, Fauja Singh was the oldest person to appear in a PETA campaign.
As news of the death broke, heartfelt tributes followed. Prime Minister Narendra Modi called him an ‘exceptional athlete with incredible determination’. Singh’s running club and charity, Sikhs In The City, said it would devote all of its events to him until the Fauja Singh Birthday Challenge on 29 March 2026 to celebrate his life of success and achievements.
“We will be doubling the efforts to raise funds to building the Fauja Singh Clubhouse on the route in Ilford where he used to train,” it said.
Sana Cheryl Felix is an intern who graduated from ThePrint School of Journalism
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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