:dateline:The oldest marathon runner in the world, London based Fauja Singh, has ended on a high at the age of 101 years – but that is not the end of the road for him. Not just yet.
As the Punjabi origin athlete completed the 26-mile London Marathon on Sunday in a record time of seven hours and 49 minutes, he announced this would be his last race. But he says the London Marathon was only his last full marathon – he will continue to run smaller races, from five kilometre ones to half marathons.
The spirited Fauja, originally from Beas Pind near Jalandhar in Punjab and now settled in Ilford-London, is not giving up his “only passion left” – running – just yet.
Fauja, who was born in India but moved to the UK in the Sixties, took up marathon running at the age of 89 and has completed eight races since.
“Turning him into a marathon runner was one of the easiest jobs I’ve ever had,” his coach Harmandar Singh told the BBC.
“If I said we’re doing 10k he’d say ‘why not 20?’
“I think the secret to his training regime and his attitude to life is that he’s totally positive,” he added.
Singh, who is a world record holder in the over 90s and over 100 category, said: “There’s a song which says forget about age, your heart should be young.”
“When people say you’re over 100 I feel strange I don’t consider myself to be old. If I start calling myself old I’ll feel weaker.”
“If I don’t run, I don’t keep moving that’s hard for me. I always walk for two to three hours in the morning, even if I’m ill, I like to walk. It’s my medicine,” he added.
Singh turned up for his first training session in 1999 in a three piece suit and a pair of trainers and has since gone on to break multiple records and even appeared in an Adidas advert. He says the first 20 miles of marathon are easy, but “the last six I run talking to god”.
