Milkha Singh ran an Olympic record – but still came fourth

As a schoolboy he saw his family beheaded during Partition, but Milkha Singh overcame the odds to become India’s national hero before a deadly battle with Covid.

Former Indian sprinter Milkha Singh attends the theatrical and music launch of his life story, the Hindi Bollywood film 'Bhaag Milkha Bhaag' . Picture: AFP

OBITUARY

Milkha Singh
Runner. Born November 20, 1929, Punjab, British India; died June 18, Chandigarh, India, aged 91.

The history of India’s athletics success at the Olympic Games is thin. India took part in the second modern games, the 1900 Paris Olympics, at which the Calcutta-born runner Norman Pritchard won silver medals in the 200m sprint and 200m hurdles. Olympics historians later declared him English – but the medals are recorded in the Indian tally. (Pritchard moved to Hollywood, changed his name to Norman Trevor, became a silent movie star and died in a Californian insane asylum.)

It would be almost 60 years before India had another athletics hero. Milkha Singh was born in the small village of Govindpura (now known as Basti Bukhari), in Punjab, but they were convulsively violent times as India and Pakistan headed towards independence and Partition. Singh’s family was instructed to convert to Islam. Later they were beheaded.

“My family was killed before my eyes. I was witness to all the brutal killings that took place,” he recalled. He also lost a brother and two sisters – 15 million people were displaced by Partition and more than a million killed.

Actor Farhan Akhtar played Milkha Singh in a biopic about his life.

He moved to refugee camps and on to Delhi, where he lived on a train platform for a year, and finally moved in with another sister. While living there he was arrested for travelling without a ticket and jailed. His sister sold jewellery to pay his fine and free him. He toyed with becoming what Indians call a dacoit, a gang member and robber, but it didn’t fit with his character.

A surviving brother encouraged him to join the army and, on a fourth attempt, he was accepted. It was 1951, and recruits had to undertake cross-country running events. Until then, Singh had never thought of running as a sport. Neither had he heard of the Olympics. But he had natural talent which he quickly developed with intense, but unguided training. Soon he was winning races across the country.

Despite the chaotic training, Singh qualified to compete for India at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics in the 200m and 400m sprints. His inexperience showed and he was bundled out in the heats, but he spoke to the eventual gold medallist, American Charles Jenkins, who generously explained to Singh his training routines that involved practising race starts, weights and hill running.

Vastly improved, and with gold medals in both events in the 1958 Asian Games, and the 440-yard event at that year’s Commonwealth Games in record time – he was presented with his medal by the Queen – he lined up confidently for the 1960 Olympics.

Shortly before Rome, while competing in France, he was manually recorded as having set a world record time of 45.8 seconds for the 400m, but it was not officially accepted. All India hoped for a medal in Rome and Singh started well, but in a disastrous tactical move he slowed while leading at 250m to keep some energy in reserve. The others pounced. Singh was unable to regain his stride. Otis Davis (US) ran a world record time of 44.9, the same recorded time as second placegetter, Germany’s Carl Kaufmann. South African Malcolm Spence pipped Singh for third with 45.5 while the Indian ran 45.6 – until seven hundredths of a second beforehand it would have been a world record. As The Age newspaper noted 50 years later: “Milkha Singh is the only Indian to have broken an Olympic track record. Unfortunately he was the fourth man to do so in the same race.” It remained the Indian national record another 40 years.

He later served for many years as sports director for the Punjab Education Ministry. He donated his medals to a sports museum and his 1960 shoes to charity. A book on his life inspired the film Run, Milkha, Run that became a hit. Singh sold the rights to his story for a single rupee as long as a share of its profits went to charity. It won five Indian Academy Awards.

In 1960 he was invited by Pakistan’s prime minister to race there. He was understandably reluctant, but Indian prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru intervened: “They are our neighbours. We have to maintain our friendship and love with them. Sport fosters these things, therefore you should go.”

As Singh crossed the border, 20km of schoolchildren lined the way, half holding the flags of India, half Pakistan. The Flying Sikh, as they labelled him, was overwhelmed.

Singh died of complications from Covid-19, as had his wife, Nirmal, a former volleyball champion, five days earlier.