| Milkha Singh | |
|---|---|
| Born | 8 October 1935 Layallpur, British India |
| Nationality | Indian |
| Other names | Flying Sikh |
| Occupation | Athlete |
| Known for | Padma Shri |
| Religion | Sikh |
| Olympic medal record | ||
|---|---|---|
| Men's Athletics | ||
| Competitor for IND | ||
| British Empire and Commonwealth Games | ||
| Gold | 1958 Cardiff | 440 yards |
Milkha Singh (Hindi: मिलखा सिंह) (born 8 October 1935) is an Indian athlete, who represented India in the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome and the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. He is nicknamed The Flying Sikh.
He is considered as one of the greatest athletes ever produced by India and is also the father of the professional golfer Jeev Milkha Singh.
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He was born on the 8th of October 1935 at Lyallpur (now in Pakistan) in a Sikh Rajput Rathore Family. He had a very difficult childhood as he saw his parents and relatives being killed in front of his own eyes during the Indo-Pak partition Massacre. A 12 year old Milkha escaped for his life and hiding himself behind the corpses in the train to India, managed to get a new lease of life, though left all alone in the world by now.He studied at Bishop Cotton School,Shimla.
The Partition massacres of 1947 took the lives of his parents and Singh was rejected by the army thrice. He subsequently enrolled in the army's electrical mechanical engineering branch in 1952 when his brother Malkhan Singh put in a word for him, and experienced his first sport outing at its athletics meet a fortnight later.Determined to be the best and realizing his talent as a sprinter, the year took to training five hours every day under the watchful eyes of coach Havildar Gurdev Singh.
Milkha Singh represented India in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, his first Olympic event. Although he couldn’t fare quite well at the event being less experienced at the time, he learnt a lot from the competition to prepare himself well for the future meets. After winning Gold in Cardiff, Wales, UK in the 1958 Commonwealth games and accepting the gold with a full head of hair, due to his Sikh faith, he became known throughout the world of Athletics.
Around the same time, he was invited to run in Pakistan but was unsure due to the events of his childhood. He was persuaded as people were afraid of the political ramifications if he refused on these grounds. He decided to run.
Throughout various races Milkha Singh destroyed his opposition, easily winning, using his parents as an inspiration. This is where he became known as the Flying Sikh.
Probably the best period during Milkha’s career as an Athlete arrived between the year 1958 and 1960. He won Gold Medals in both 200m and 400m events at the 1958 Asian Games in Tokyo, clocking 21.6 seconds and 47 seconds respectively. At the 1958 Cardiff Commonwealth Games, he improved his 400m timing to 46.16 seconds, and grabbed a Gold Medal again. He thus became independent India's first gold medallist at the Commonwealth Games.
The most important occasion in Milkha’s career arrived in the form of Rome Olympic Games 1960. In the first heat of 400m race at the Rome Olympic Games, he covered the race at 47.6 seconds and finished at 2nd position. In the second heat he further improved his timing and grabbed 2nd position again with a timing of 46.5 seconds. Karl Kaufman of Germany had outclassed him this time. In the Semi Final heat he still finished at 2nd place, although this time he further improved the timing with 45.9, beaten by only Ottis Davis of USA. In the final round of the coveted race, Milkha went off like an arrow and left all other competitors behind until the distance of 250m. He then miscalculated his own speed and the other opponents had lagged him behind enough for him to catch them again. The competition was so tough that Ottis Davis and Karl Kaufman clocked 44.9 seconds, while Malcolm Spence of South Africa covered the race in 45.5 seconds. Milkha, who was initially leading the race, finished just 0.1 seconds later by Spence, clocking 45.6 seconds. The difference was so minute that the announcement was initially held up and further declared after a photo-finish. Thus Milkha, who was a favorite for the Gold, lost a Bronze by a whisker, the closest an Indian athlete could get to an Olympic Medal in Athletics till now. (This was later bettered by P.T. Usha, who lost the 1984 Olympics 400 m hurdles bronze by 1/100th of a second)
Post retirement, Milkha Singh holds the appointment of Director of Sports in Punjab. Singh's life story will also be the basis of a forthcoming film named Bhaag Milkha Bhaag (translation: Run Milkha Run) being directed by Rakeysh Mehra and starring Farhan Akhtar and Sonam Kapoor in lead roles. [1]
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