Police in India arrested a person in connection with the death of Fauja Singh, the world’s oldest marathon runner in a hit-and-run case.
According to the police, the accused, Amritpal Singh Dhilan was running a high-speed SUV when he killed 114-year-old British-Indian runner. Singh suffered important injuries and died soon after being taken to the hospital.
The incident took place in the northern state of Punjab on Monday, where Singh was out on a walk.
A global icon, Singh, made a record by running a marathon in several age categories, when he was over 100. He started walking at 89 and drove nine full marathons between 2000 and 2013, when he retired.
A white colored SUV used in the incident has also been recovered by the police.
This hit and run took place near the berth village of Fauja Singh, which was close to Jalandhar city.
Police said Singh was crossing a road when he collided with a vehicle. Local people rushed him to the hospital, where he later died.
As Indian media report citing police complaintThe runner’s life may have survived, the 26 -year -old driver immediately rushed Singh to the hospital.
There were many records of Singh’s name.
In 2011, he allegedly became more than 100 people to finish a full marathon in Toronto. He also ran the Olympic torch at the 2012 London Olympics.
Despite his achievements, the Guinness World Records could not consider him as the oldest marathon runner as he did not have a birth certificate since 1911.
The BBC earlier stated that Singh’s British passport had shown his date of birth as 1 April 1911, and he had a letter to the queen who congratulated him on his 100th birthday.
Guinness said that he wanted to give him a record, but could only accept official documents from the year of birth.
His marathon trainer had earlier said that birth certificates were not issued in India at that time.
His running club and charity in the city, Sikhs said, its upcoming program in Ilford, East London, where he had lived since 1992, will be a celebration of his life and achievements.
As a young boy, Singh was often teased in his village in Punjab because his legs were weak. He could not run properly by the age of five.
“But the same boy, once made fun of his weakness, went to make history,” he told BBC Punjabi in June.
Singh never went to school and did not play any game growing up. He worked as a farmer and lived through both the World War and Turbulent Partition of India.
“In my youth, I did not even know that the word ‘marathon’ was present,” he said.
After undergoing deep personal loss, he began running much later in life.
In the early 1990s, after his wife’s death, Singh moved to London to live with his eldest son. But during a visit to India, he saw the death of his younger son Kuldeep in an accident, destroying him.
Back to Britain, Singh overtook sorrow. One day, during a visit to the local Gurdwara at Ilford, he met a group of old men on regular runs. This is the place where he also met Hermander Singh, who later became his coach and started his journey as a runner.
Singh shot international fame when Adidas signed him for the impossible 2004, nothing advertising campaign, which also featured legends like Muhammad Ali.
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