Fauja Singh was the world's oldest marathon runner. He died on July 14th 2025, probably aged 114, after being hit by a speeding SUV outside his house in Beas Pind, Punjab, India. His passport gave his birth year as 1911, but in British-ruled India villagers like him received no birth certificates, so the precise date was never established. Guinness World Records refused to recognise his achievements for that reason.
Singh was born in the village of Beas Pind in Punjab. He could not walk at all until the age of five; his legs were so weak that neighbours called him "Danda" ("Stick"). He could manage no more than a mile until he was 15, and barely went to school as a result. His legs were treated with medicines and bound with bandages at night before they gradually improved. He went on to work on the family farm, walking in the fields for hours and taking up running.
Singh gave up running in his mid-30s but resumed it in his late 80s. His first race was a local 20km event for a cancer charity in 2000, when he was 89; he raised about £700. He went on to run nine marathons in total.
Notable times included:
He retired from competitive running in 2013, aged 101. His coach was Harmander Singh, whom he met at the gurdwara in east London.
Singh left Punjab for Ilford, east London, around 1992, to join his son Sukhjinder. Grief had driven him away: in quick succession in the early 1990s he lost his wife, his eldest daughter in childbirth, and his middle son Kuldip, killed when a sheet of corrugated iron hit him during a storm. Singh never learned to write or speak English and had not originally intended to stay.
He ran 10-15km a day until his retirement, and maintained a strict diet of roti, vegetables and dal from the Sikh temple's community kitchen, avoiding rice and fried food. He started each day with an alsi pinni, a Punjabi powerball of flaxseed, wheat flour, jaggery and ghee.
He founded a running group called "Sikhs in the City" with elderly friends, which raised money for charity and grew substantially. He became a British citizen and was awarded the British Empire Medal in 2015. Adidas used him in an advertising campaign alongside David Beckham. He ran almost always in a full marigold-yellow turban, refusing the simpler patka.
In later life Singh returned to Beas Pind. He maintained his strict diet and walked for four hours every afternoon. He was struck by a hit-and-run driver on July 14th 2025, just as he was about to set out on his daily walk.
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